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that-tall-queer-bassist · 3 months ago

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The Wisdom Saga

*screaming*

Legendary

i love the piano and the melody of this so much

i love this song

so much omg

he just wants to be like his dad.... he wants to know his dad and be close to him in any way....... augh

"Somebody come tell me, give me a sign" YEAH

CHORUS CHORUS CHORUS CHORUS CHORSU ITS SO ICONIC OMG

his little "l-l-l-l-legendary" gets me every time

"men who call me small" he's like. 20 isnt he? goddamn

augh verses and bridges...

CHORUS CHORUS CHORUS

ugh the fucking suitors

theyre so nasty i hate them and i love hating them

"tramp" BITCH DONT YOU DARE

this bitch is so antagonstic omg

OH HES tALKING ABOUT THE SUITOR AS THE MONSTER OH

Little Wolf

this is such a good beat

I hate and love this because i hate the suitors but i love to do it you know?

bruh youre threatening this baby

calling Ody his "daddy" seems so antagonistic omg

the voice actors did a great job. singers? va's? idk

vicious fucking chorus-

YEAHHHH ATHENA

the return of the ticking and the piano

the fact that telemachus's and athenas piano feel similar to me...

oh athena is so badass

i love calling teh suitors dogs and telemachus a wolf

ShE SAID LITTLE WOLF CHANGING TEH MEANING OMG

AhhhHHHHHH THIS SONG GOES SO HARD

oof poor guy got pushed too hard and lost :<

"man to adorn her" i feel like i heard that wrong

"Tell me Athena why you came to my aid" good line to end on very good

We'll Be Fine

the piano sounds so sad and hopeful at the same time

I wonder if telemachus knows shes talking about odysseus

ough blaming herself for Ody turning out this way...

god her voice is so pretty, this song is so pretty and i love it

oh i guess he doesn't know

"I got in a fight and i didn't die" BRO THATS BARE MINIMUM??

i mean hes got a bunch of points

he's so hopeful it hurts

god i cant wait for the rueinion

"you're a good kid" "thanks" AUGH STAB ME ALREADY

Love in Paradise

oooooh so many refrains returning

I forgot about this i love it

choosing that section of thunder bringer is CRUEL

and then waves and a new synth for Calypso :>

She sounds so pretty omg

"She's my wife" "anyways-" BRO

"I'm not your man" in the same way he sings I'm Just A Man

"I'm no pet I'm a married man!" DAMN RIGHT

Her introduction is so catchy and fun though omg

He sounds so distraught

7 years oof

i wonder if it was 20 years away from home actually

god he sounds so fucking tragic and sad and she's trying so hard, but he cant augh

"Stay in my open arms" to polites singing omg mean to me

this song is so good-

HE CALLED FOR ATHENA??

and the ticking!!!!

"He needs my help" YEAH HE DOES

God Games

this sog goes so hard omg

omg she's openly claiming him as a friend

the brass fuck yeah

TH EINTRODUCTIONS GO SO HARD

also all the animatics for these are so amazing as well

"bring it" yeahhh!!

Apollo is so easy omg. i love him. im writing fic about him. i have to.

Heaphestus was also convinced pretty easy, which was nice

Aphrodite and Ares section was interesting, probably the most interesting story wise.

I love ares intro and section

YEAHHH ATHENA GET THEIR ASSES GET EM FUCK YEAH

i love the return of her motif and stuff <- doesn't know the correct terminology sorry

Heras section is so groovy i love it

AND FUNNY OMG THATS GREAT

and she won but she didnt but she will

Zeus you sore loser cringe fuck

i would bitch slap him even if he made me ash a second later

god i can't believe he almost killed athena thats so fucking- AHAKJJ

and her motif.... AND IT COMING BACK WITH THE BRASS YEAHHHH

SHE WINS. SHE WINS. SHES GOTTA.

Ending on "Let him go, please, let him go" is MEAN TO ME SPECIFICALLY

god i love tihs saga so much

and this album

Live Reaction of my SECOND listen through of EPIC: The Musical

okay i want my Thoughts after finishing the first listen through today (over the course of a week) but i need to listen Again so here we fucking go peoples. Reblogging with each new saga to keep things organized a bit :)

The Troy Saga

we start!!

The Horse And The Infant

"little ajax stay back" 🥺

"You're not ready"

"I could raise him as my own" I WISH PLEASE

the whole section with overlapping dialogue of possibilities and the tragic ends they would lead to

i wanna know who that guy speaking was i don't remember

Just a Man

its so tragic how this infant reminds him of his own son like what the fuck thats so fucked up how could jorge do this to us. OW.

"close your eyes and spare yourself the view" Q^Q

this whole song gets me. especially paired with WolfyTheWitch's animatic to it. augh.

GOD knowing that all of these metaphors come back later and become Relevant i CANT OMG

"Forgive me" is probably the worst thing he could say because i do and i can't at the same time, but he's not asking me to forgive him, he's asking this INFANT who he KILLED AUGH

Full Speed Ahead

600 men. 601 with Odysseus

god this really is just setting the scene huh. and well!!

He really did wanna go home as fast as he could

OH MY GOD MY BOI I FORGOT ABOUT HIM AND HIS OPEN ARMS

his voice is like. angelic. wow.

"and if we don't return, then 600 men can make this place burn" i forgot about that woah

Open Arms

"My friend" my heart hurts

"This life is amazing when you greet it with open arms" oh sweet boy

the sound of a sword being drawn is so good omg

"600 friends are waiting for us to show our faces" XD bruh not subtle

EVEN LESS SUBTLE

Polites i love you

"My friend" you are friends yes please remember that please

Oh i forgot the lotus eaters sent them to "this food filled cave"

"I see in your face there is so much guilt in your heart" AUGH MY BOY

the repeating by odysseus...

"You can relax my friend" at the end like AUGH thats so GOOD and then the immediate next song being Warrior of the Mind !!! very good very tragic

Warrior of the Mind

immediately the music change raises the tension

the way Odysseus immediately knows who she is, hears or something, i love it so much.

"Have you forgotten your purpose? Let me remind you." AUGH hes not a man, but a tool

He seems like more of a conquest or trophy than a person to her, which is fair given he's a mortal and she's a goddess but damn this really does just keep happening to him, being a gods plaything huh?

THIS CHORUS GOES SO SO HARD THOUGH

"Maybe one day he'll follow me and we'll make a greater tomorrow" the way she sings this makes my brain so happy

the whole chorus just scratches my brain in such a good way omg

the slowness. "show yourself"

HIS LITTLE LAUGH

the whole exchange honestly

"nah, don't be modest, i know you're a goddess, so lets be honest-" YES YES YES

"YOU ARE ATHENA" WOOOOOOOOOOOO CLAPPING CHEERING

his description of her is great

"goddess and man, bestest of friends!" "We'll see where it ends" "okay" asdghkjsa im wheezing

THEIR DUET

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

"ending on "don't disappoint me" is so mean

#wisdom saga #LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH AUGH #very long post #forgot to tag that in the beginning

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askamykruber · 2 years ago

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Hi Amy. It’s been a while. How are you and your puppet family and Owen doing. Staying warm. Cause it’s cold winter season lol

"Dashing through the snow-"

"No! No! Deck the Halls is better!"

"Can we refrain from singing carols..."

"C'mon where's your holiday spirits, Morty?

"Quiet done because mine is sick of the caroling!"

"Come on, sing it with me! JINGLE BELLS! JINGLE BELLS! JI-"

"BATMAN SMELLS! THE JOKER GOT AWAY!"

"...."

"That got her to stop"

"Scout, why you always have to sing this every time we try to sing Jin- the song about the bells jingling"

"It's a fun reference!"

"Sigh, we can never get into the laughing part..."

"Oh we have an Annon!"

"Great! *reads* oh it's for Mo- Amy!!"

*silence*

"Ummmm where's Amy?"

*Silence*

"Where's father? Where's Amy?"

*chuckles*

"Ptsss..."

Riley, dear, don't laugh.

"Wait that's Riley laughing"

"And that's Amy's voice"

"Oh she must be in the dressing room with her, I guess father is around too."

"Ho ho ho...umm no, I don't think this is the right tone of the laugh"

"BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHA"

RILEY ANNE RUCKUS!

*puppets peak*

*Owen is dressed as the Grinch and Rosco is dressed as Max while Riley laughs uncontrollably*

"Oh no....not this again..."

"Ooh the charity event!"

"This has to be one of your stupidest but most brilliant ideas, Owen!"

Riley, if you keep making fun of your father we'll drag you to be a Who for the even-Oh, hi children! Scouty, there you are! We have been looking for our Cindy Lou everywhere

"OH NO, NO, NO! I'M NOT DRESSING UP AS STUPID CINDY LOU AGAIN!"

"Scouty, you know the lines perfectly + Kookie is sick with the flue to take on the role in this charity event"

Plus mama fixed the wig!

"Fine. After the stupid elf in the shelf is watching me."

"Don't you say that because you're embarrassed that you enjoy-"

"MOM YOU HAVE AN ASK!"

Oh! Hi Annon!

"I see that we have visitors daring to enter the Grinch's lair!"

Great job, sweetie.

"Thank you, my dear Martha *wink*"

*blushes* Owy, not in front of the kids.

Ejem! Hello, dearie!

Sorry for takin' a bit to respond. Owen, our team, and I have been quite busy organizing our Holiday charity event + helping Nick Nack work on his stage play for "A Christmas Carol"

So far we have been preparing ourselves when the snow arrives and the studio gets chilly like a Popsicle in a freezer.

"And I'm waiting for the school to close due to all the snow!"

"And you get twice as homework!"

"Let me have this, sister..."

Well, Daisy and Annie have been working their best putting our Christmas decorations. I got Owy and I some Rudolph and Clarice's onesies for our Christmas slumber party. Last year We were Mr. and Mrs. Klaus, this time we settled for a Rankin/Bass classic.

"And Mrs. Kruber kneaded us new sweaters to wear"

"And Riley got Rosco one of those Christmas light necklace!"

"And Nick and Daisy won't stop singing those carols!"

"Well, they're part of the Christmas chorus along with the other puppeteer kids."

"Now you broke character."

Riley, you are quite close of getting to dress as Who!

"Anyways, I heard Amy and Father were planning on singing a nice duet for the Studio's Christmas celebration again!"

Oh, right!

"*Gulps* Don't bring that up"

Oh, but you two sounded so wonderful, last year!"

"Daisy, Read. The. Room."

Scout, dress rehearsals. Now.

"Let me grab the camera!"

"At least we agree in something for once, Nick"

*sighs* Well, we gotta go. Thank you so much for your ask, Annon and happy holidays!

-Amy

#hello puppets #asks #ask blog #asks responds #ask blog au #holiday asks

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rainydawgradioblog · 2 years ago

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New College Freshman Anthem: Taylor Swift’s “You’re on Your Own, Kid”

Okay, okay, I know. Since Taylor Swift’s Midnights dropped on the 21st, it’s been talked about a LOT. But...as the token dazed and confused freshman of the Rainy Dawg blog, what I’m about to write about felt pretty fitting for my first post. For any of you out there having a rough transition to college, or any big life change, give this one a solid listen.

The emotional devastation of this song starts off strong with the line “Summer went away, but still the yearning stays/I play it cool with the best of them”. After going out, night after night, for weeks and spending the whole time thinking about the people I used to hang out with in high school, I was (needless to say) intrigued. The combination of discussing the feeling of desperate, nostalgic yearning with the act of playing it cool in a setting full of new and absurdly awesome people takes a magnifying glass to the exterior of nothing but fun and an unbothered attitude that I myself and countless other freshmen have put on for the last couple of weeks. (Plus…“I touch my phone as if it’s your face,” which also made my jaw hit the floor since I had done that exact thing about 2 hours prior)

Then, the highlight lines of the pre-chorus, which repeats twice, are the similar “I search the party of better bodies just to learn that you never cared” and “I search the party of better bodies just to learn that my dreams aren’t rare.” The combination of these two lines is perfect to model the slow and devastating deconstruction of what is well known and familiar that happens at such a drastic and quick change like moving into college. This pre-chorus leads into just two brief lines, the refrain and title of the song, which says “You’re on your own, kid/You always have been” which sums up that lonely, jarring feeling of moving out all too well (pun intended).

Finally, it would actually be a federal offense to write a detailed post about this song’s lyrics and how a college freshman could relate to them if I didn’t talk about the actual star of this song (and dare I say the entire Midnights album), the bridge. She starts with the same melody and first line of her pre-chorus, “From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes,” following that line up with “I gave my blood, sweat and tears for this,” a common sentiment among all burnt out high school graduates who actually managed to make it to the school they dedicated so much of high school to getting into. “I hosted parties and starved my body/Like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss” rubs salt in the wound, evoking classic freshman pitfall images, and all the momentarily satisfying but crushing things that sudden freedom offers. Another heavy hitter? “My friends from home don’t know what to say” After the daily phone calls to friends 3 time zones away, simultaneously elated and on the verge of a mental breakdown? Ouch.

But before you start wondering “who is this kid writing a depressing rant about how she’s scared of college for her first blog post?” Wait! Because the most important thing about this song is how it ends. The hope and reassurance that this song ends with is the exact message I think so many freshmen, and anyone who’s feeling a little lost and caught off guard, really needs to hear. As she turns the corner and reminds her audience that “Everything you lose is a step you take” the song feels less despondent and more inspirational. “So make the friendship bracelets/Take the moment and taste it/You’ve got no reason to be afraid” reads like the gentle advice of a big sister, as the melody and beat pick up in the background, and she ties up the mental journey that this song represents cleanly as can be. So to anyone reading this that’s a fellow lonely freshman, feeling a little lost, or with some reservations about your future, me and Taylor are here to remind you that “Yeah, you can face this”.

Stay cool,

K-MURPH!

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years ago

Video

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DUA LIPA - PHYSICAL

[7.50]

It's okay! Move that boogie body!

Leah Isobel: It is a dark and stormy night. In a sinister science lab located somewhere in Carmen Sandiego's plush pomo lair, a pop singer plugs in a neon light, shrugs into a next-season Gaultier lab coat and gets to work. In the reflection of her gold-tinted goggles we see her add one (1) part Extract of "Into You," one (1) part Juice of Newton-John, and four (4) drops of Synthesizer Spice into a contoured beaker. She turns on the flame of a Bunsen burner; stream gushes from her concoction like a geyser, emitting a high, keening refrain. She whispers a few luscious words into the steam -- "diamond," "sssimulation," "adrenaline" -- but her experiment still lacks a certain something. Then -- BOOM! -- in a thundercrash of lightning, it hits her. Eureka! She turns and sees her reflection illuminated in the glass of an emergency axe container, kept onsite in case of fire. "Well," she chuckles to herself as she breaks the glass with a four-inch stiletto heel, "I am creating something... hot." Axe in hand, she chops the neon light into pieces and stuffs the shards, now glittering like a million sequined dancefloors, into the beaker. With the addition of this Decoction of Disco, her potion bubbles... it burbles... then KABOOM: it explodes the entire building and half of the surrounding city! She stands in the wreckage as thunder splits the sky above and sirens wail in the distance. We see Dua's eyes glow green before she throws her head back to the sky and screams: "GAY RIIIIIGHTS!" [9]

William John: Probably the best example of what parts of the Internet's stan culture would facetiously refer to as "gay rights" from a mainstream musical artist since... the last Dua Lipa single, or, failing that, "Into You." Like those precedents, "Physical" is camp but magisterial; playful but extremely melodramatic; sweeping, dance floor ready, and dripping with an exultant swagger. Her reminder to "hold on, just a little tighter" at the bridge is, truthfully, a hollow gesture; at that stage, the listener is so deeply embroiled in her glorious disco caprice as to not really be capable of gripping anything at all. [10]

Jackie Powell: It couldn't be clearer that Dua Lipa had something to prove not only to herself, but to the pop music intelligentsia on her sophomore offering. What has struck me most about the Future Nostalgia cycle is how Dua is executing every facet of it with confidence. On this track, she's not afraid of hitting notes that eclipse the breadth of her previous singles, especially on the bridge. "Physical" is a representative offering of exactly what she's aiming to prove. Each track we've heard so far reflects a different decade accompanied with a modern polish. I don't think I'm the only one who believes Olivia Newton-John's '80s exercise sexual metaphor smash "Physical" deserves the tribute it's getting here. There's a clear homage paid to her and to Patti LaBelle on Lipa's own "Physical." I'm going to interpret her lyric "We created something phenomenal" as a bit of a double-entendre. Not only is it about sex in the narrative of the track, but it's a comment on Lipa's approach to this era and her confidence on every single part of it. The sexual symbolism isn't just in the lyrics, but also in the track's composition and the narrative communicated in the visual treatment. The vocal highs that she hits on the bridge represent a climax musically and sexually. She has so much confidence in the visual treatment, she spends most of it braless. That takes guts. [9]

Tobi Tella: Dua Lipa's perceived lack of personality has turned out to actually be lack of a schtick preventing her from artistically evolving, something many of her peers are plagued with. Also, I've died and gone to gay heaven. [9]

Alfred Soto: The way Dua Lipa's unexpected bon mots and smoky sultriness ride the beat and compete with the strings compensate for a production too dressed up in leg warmers and headbands for my taste -- I mean, her exhortations are more fearsome than erotic. [7]

Julian Axelrod: Pop's '80s revival arms race has escalated to its natural endpoint: the accidental exhumation of Olivia Newton-John. I wish Dua Lipa had used "let's get physical" in a more literal iteration; singing it over hyperdrive synths guarantees it'll be never played in its intended setting, especially when she has half the energy of ONJ. But she hit the mark where it counts: This is going to rule spin classes for the rest of the year. [6]

Brad Shoup: A throwback training-montage track that suggests sex but is really about dancing and Olivia Newton-John erasure. This is Stranger Things pop. [5]

Thomas Inskeep: Sex is natural, sex is fun, sex is best when soundtracked by throbbing '80s synths. [6]

Ashley Bardhan: Okay, fine, I enjoy horny music. Sue me! This song is what would happen if ABBA was brought back to life as a bunch of hot 20-year-olds in little shirts from Fashion Nova. The "let's get physical" chorus feels a little lazy since it's a direct lift from Olivia Newton-John's 1981 hit, but this is a great song to listen to while thinking about that video of Charli XCX holding poppers. No complaints here. [7]

Alex Clifton: I've underestimated Dua Lipa. Her first album had some hits and misses, but Future Nostalgia is shaping up to be one of the best pop releases of 2020 based on the strength of its singles. "Physical" is a cascade of rainbow lights in a roller rink and makes me long to go out to a club, one where I can get down in a huge crowd of people and dance my white-girl ass off poorly. I'm an extreme introvert, so anything that makes me want to leave the house and be around strangers is powerful stuff indeed. It's a little cheesy, but who cares? It's a love letter to the '80s with all the campiness a song citing Olivia Newton-John should have. I'm desperately in love with Dua Lipa after hearing this, and I have a feeling "Physical" will be one of my favourite songs of the year. [9]

Stephen Eisermann: Dua Lipa has quietly become the pop superstar that so many of us wanted Carly Rae to be. Both women make incredible music, but it is Dua who has found commercial success; after hearing "Physical," it seems pretty obvious why. It's a retro-laden, power-pop track that is extraordinary only in the way Dua delivers it. What should be pedestrian instead is hypnotic, infectious, and oh so delicious. [8]

Lauren Gilbert: I promised a friend I'd blurb this song, and now that I've sat down to write it, I have nothing to say. It is a perfect pop song -- Dua knocks it out of the park on this record. I keep getting distracted from writing jamming to the track. I'm dancing while lying down on my couch. She created something phenomenal; we are left with no choice but to stan. [10]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I've justified Dua Lipa's dearth of personality in years past, but this is where things don't add up: her dead-eyed singing makes no sense during the chorus, whose synths lack the fervor to make up for clinical vocal melodies. Around this time last year, we had Lizzo's "Juice"; now we have "Physical" as an example of '80s pastiche that only feels like it exudes energy and passion and charm. [2]

Will Adams: It's neat to have a single that's its own Initial Talk remix, but the synthpop revivalism is a bit too literal, to the point of putting all its chips on an Olivia Newton-John quote. It's not until the bridge -- "keep on DANCING!" -- where the drama locks in and starts, but only starts, to feel real. [6]

Kylo Nocom: Dua Lipa, determined more than ever to win the Popjustice £20 Music Prize, accidentally transforms into Alice Chater in the process. [5]

Katherine St Asaph: If "Physical" being by Dua Lipa wasn't hypertargeted enough to the Popjustice set, is that the synth progression from Saint Etienne's "No Cure for the Common Christmas" in the intro and beneath the chorus? It's certainly the same height of drama. The track attached isn't quite so charged: a little too Lady Gaga circa "Applause" and a little too Peloton instructor quoting Olivia Newton-John for absolutely no reason besides the culture deciding at some point to make the phrase a permanent, meaningless meme. (The song doesn't even sound particularly '80s; the disco strings are the decade prior, and the vocal squiggles on the verse are so specifically 2016 a time traveler's on their way to erase them.) Dua Lipa only betrays a personality on the spoken-word bridge; ironic how that and the vaporous intro, the least physical things on this track, are the most thrilling. [7]

Vikram Joseph: The intro feels like a prickling at the back of your neck, the one-line pre-chorus feels like plummeting six floors in a broken elevator, and the chorus is such a headrush you can practically smell the poppers: "Physical"'s thrills might be straightforward, but they're visceral as fuck. There are vintage Lady Gaga vibes, the "come on!"s are surely a nod to "We Are Your Friends," and the whole thing reminds me, inexplicably, of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life." But Dua Lipa is starting to make this all seem effortless, and the panache with which she delivers "Physical" easily pulls it clear of the gravitational field of its forebears. [9]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: "Physical" dares us to be the boldest versions of ourselves. It finds itself at the perfect intersection of confidence and lust. Dua Lipa is flirting with you with a playfulness she can only possess because she already knows you're going home together -- and she won't let you leave until the dancing is done. Dancing here is instinct, it's synths that sound as sweet as they do sinister, it's salty like the sweat that rolls down your forehead after you've been, well, physical. Dua Lipa is crushing the Confessions on a Dance Floor album that I've long been waiting for Lady Gaga to make. Dance floor music has long been my site of refuge and catharsis, so it's refreshing to be reminded that it can still sound so immediately, eminently thrilling. [9]

Kayla Beardslee: This doesn't quite reach the heights of "Don't Start Now," but damn it comes close. "Physical" should, in theory, be a cookie-cutter pop girl release, but Dua proves once again that she is the most important element in her music. The producers are doing everything right too, but who else could pull off her endearing smirk in "common love isn't for us" or that wonderful growl in "follow the noise"? And Dua takes us through a transcendental bridge that highlights the best qualities of her voice: singing simple lyrics that say everything they need to, she's breathless yet confident, desperate for touch yet satisfied with the musical world she's helped to create. Something phenomenal, indeed: this rollout has been a joy to follow. [9]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: "Physical" takes the opposite approach to "Don't Start Now" -- while that song's studio version swallows up its singer in a beautifully constructed, sterile disco pastiche (the live versions and remixes are much better), turning her into just one more retro cog, "Physical" makes her the center of attention. The production around her is good enough (the synth preset change right before the chorus starts is especially nice), but not particularly coherent or hooky on its own. In the vacuum left, Dua gets to have more fun, charismatically switching between vocal styles and walking around like she owns the place. [8]

Jibril Yassin: A powerhouse vocal colliding headfirst with production that's neither plodding nor limp. It's a song that's meant to feel like a blockbuster and after a few failed tries, it's thrilling to hear Dua Lipa finally nail the landing and sound like the superstar she wants to be. [7]

Michael Hong: "Physical" is magnetic. Its pulse is unrelenting, its atmosphere is shadowy and captivating, and Dua Lipa gives possibly her best vocal performance. There's no sense of the up-and-coming performer who delivered everything with stolid execution, instead, "Physical" is a sly wink of a pre-chorus leading to a forceful command: "baby, keep on dancing like you ain't got a choice." Dua Lipa is at the helm, all thoughts and any other desires are out the window, and the night is neverending. [7]

Joshua Lu: Several of Dua Lipa's past hit songs have relied on a marketable veneer of cool: "New Rules" works because she's the straight-talker friend giving advice, "Don't Start Now" necessitates a stoic character who can't be bothered to fret about her ex, and even on collaborations like "One Kiss" does Dua employ a rather unemotional voice, like she's a blank canvas for Calvin Harris' more playful and engaging production. "Physical" feels like such a departure for Dua not just because of its obvious throwback sound, but because this veneer of cool is completely torn down when the song reaches its rushing chorus. She sounds more and more desperate as her voice climbs and the synths soar above her, and her cries of "come on" ring as desperate instead of dominant. The song is indebted to pop titans of yesteryears (Olivia Newton-John obviously inspired the title, but the theatrics of the song feel more indebted to Bonnie Tyler or Patti Labelle) to the point of it not really feeling like a Dua song, but she sells it all so convincingly that it feels like a natural fit. It's part pop song, part epic showdown, and I look forward to Dua continuing to push herself to the forefront of mainstream pop music greatness. [9]

Scott Mildenhall: Little wonder that Lipa's so keen to get physical, given that she's "dreaming in a simulation" -- her focus seems to be on the former, since the latter exemplifies the aimlessness of the verses in comparison to the locked-and-loaded chorus. That has its thrills, yet never feels as loose as seems intended. "Physical" comes across too in love with the idea of being a kind of Perfect Pop to actually be it; an anthem for kinetics developed via science textbook. [7]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Dua Lipa #pop #music #music review

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vixxscifiwritings · 6 years ago

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sing to me the songs of your stars (1/2)

Characters - Jaehwan x Hongbin

Genre - Romance/Fluff

Length - 1012 words

Summary - Sometimes listening to someone else sing your favorite songs triggers your brain's desire to sing along. Jaehwan tests this theory on his boyfriend, Hongbin.

Jaehwan loves Hongbin. It's a very very very cheesy sentence and if he ever said out loud his boyfriend would die of cringing. But it's a fact as plain as day. Jaehwan loves Hongbin and is thankful for his presence in his life.

Hongbin is kind, caring and selfless. He isn't outwardly affectionate but loving in his own way. When he steals food from Jaehwan or yells at the game he was playing when he loses or places his chin on his shoulder and pouts after he burnt the toast for the hundredth time, Jaehwan's heart flip flops.

In conclusion, Hongbin is perfect to Jaehwan. Except for one small quality. Jaehwan has never heard Hongbin sing.

It's a fact that Jaehwan can't wrap his head around because Hongbin loves listening to music. The Park Hyoshin playlist is always playing when Jaehwan comes home and Hongbin is streaming. Or Red Velvet. Or Gfriend. Or Sunmi. Or Chungha, Hongbin's latest and newest favourite. There are so many artists on Hongbin's playlist, Jaehwan doesn't even remember more than two of the avant garde favourites of his, at a time.

Hongbin says that it is because Jaehwan is a successful soloist. He would never dare to sing in front of him. Jaehwan hates that Hongbin feels conscious because he has heard him him once and he has a heavenly voice that could make the stars seem brighter in the sky.

Okay maybe he is partial to the man.

But he still remembers how cute Hongbin looked while singing along to Red Velvet's Rookie and giggling while repeating 'lookie' a million times when he thought Jaehwan wasn't looking.

Jaehwan looks over to his lover, playing a random game on his phone. He has a theory and he has seen it work with Taekwoon. What are the chances he can trick Hongbin with the same, he wonders?

Keeping his volume low enough not to alert Hongbin but still loud enough to be heard, Jaehwan starts singing Wildflower. He pretends to be absorbed in his phone and nonchalant about his singing.

It takes a few bars but as sure as day, Hongbin hums along to the hook. Jaehwan stops and pretends to never have moved and Hongbin continues humming on his own. He repeats his favorite line two times before falling silent and focusing on the game he is playing.

Jaehwan cheers mentally. This always works with Taekwoon. The taller man is haunted by A Pocketful of Sunshine and Jaehwan takes any excuse to get the refrain stuck in his head.

The same principle works with Hongbin but subtly. Sometimes listening to someone else sing your favorite songs triggers your brain's desire to sing along and clearly it works with both of them.

And Jaehwan will be damned if he doesn't use it to his advantage.

The second time, the song is Red Velvet's Rookie. Jaehwan wants to make certain that last time was not a fluke and so he picks a familiar song.

Hongbin is cleaning and Jaehwan is making breakfast. The younger man has something else on his mind so the room is silent. Jaehwan starts the chorus and loops through the refrain.

As surely as the first time, Hongbin hums along. He even bops his head in rhythm and his shoulder grooves as he dusts the shelves. Jaehwan grins and continues grinning through breakfast.

When Hongbin asks him why he looks so happy, Jaehwan tells him that it is because Hongbin looks extra cute to him today. Hongbin has so many regrets.

It's not as many as he has the third time around Jaehwan triggers his humming.

This time, it is one of Jaehwan's own songs.

The two of them have heard his new solo a million times since Jaehwan had to practice at home and not the company. The promotion preparation has him so stressed that he has forgotten his experiment entirely.

Reprieve comes in small moments where Jaehwan makes excuses to be close to Hongbin and his boyfriend gives into them. Jaehwan's favourite is lying on his lap and letting Hongbin play with his hair. It soothes him to feel his hands in his hair and his warmth.

So on one lazy Saturday afternoon, in the calm before the storm, Jaehwan falls asleep on Hongbin's lap. The ambience is soporific and the sunlight filtering through the window has the entire room in a golden haze.

Hongbin is reading a book with one hand holding it up and the other running fingers through his hair. Jaehwan turns to look up at Hongbin and smiles when he sees a mop of wavy brown hair shining golden in the light behind the brown paperback poetry book.

He clears his throat and is about to say something but stops when the coughing triggers Hongbin's humming. It's the bridge that Jaehwan struggles with constantly. He has never been able to figure out the best way to sing it and so he always tries to find a different way to sing the eight bars.

He has forgotten that he always clears his throat before singing practice.

Clearly this action is so vivid that it is imprinted in Hongbin's memory. He preens a little with the realization that Hongbin pays so much attention to him and the wriggling alerts the man to his boyfriend being awake.

"Jaehwan" Hongbin freezes when he realizes he has been caught. Jaehwan knows that deer in the headlights look and he decides to act before Hongbin chooses flight as the best option in the fight or flight response.

He turns and kisses Hongbin's stomach (the nearest and a sensitive area) and grins at him. "Sing with me next time" he says roguishly and Hongbin colors red in deep mortification (and possible tingling of his nerves from Jaehwan's kiss).

Jaehwan gets pushed off and he falls off the couch they had been sitting on. Hongbin swears he will never talk to Jaehwan ever again and storms off to his room to play Pogostuck and rage his embarrassment away.

Jaehwan still counts it as a triumph of science.

Next >>

#vixx fanfiction #vixx ken #vixx hongbin #kenbin #romance fluff

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zutaras-where-its-at · 6 years ago

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Zutara Month Day 18: Diplomatic Solution

Summary: A ransomed noblewoman with a bark equally as bad as her bite, a cruel Captain with a shady background, a crew on the verge of mutiny, and a tired quartermaster reaching his last limits... [or, a zutara pirate au // part 2]

((day 2: Hidden Identity, pirate au part 1))

The woman is uncharacteristically quiet when he arrives well past sunset to unlock her iron bars. Zuko’s blood is still simmering in his veins, but he is gentle with her as he lifts her from her prison.

Before he can think to avoid her shrewd gaze, she’s stopping him with a surprisingly strong hand on his shoulder and turning him to face her.

“We can help each other.” Her voice is low and steady, and a shiver travels down his spine.

“I can’t release you, and even if I did, where would you go? In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of the—”

She shakes her head, cobalt eyes seeming to glow in the light of the moon above them. “No. I don’t want you to release me. I want you to help me so that I can help us both.”

His dark brows furrow in confusion. “What the hell are you going on about, Yokai?”

“Katara. My name is Katara. And what I’m telling you is that I can get rid of Zhao, right here, right now. But first, I need your dagger.”

He thinks his heart might have skipped a few beats, and when the words fully sink in, he takes a moment to truly look at her. Her eyes are crystal clear and her chin tilts up in a stubborn angle, lips pressed into a determined line.

“Why?”

The breath she inhales through her nose trembles just the slightest bit, and it’s the first moment of raw vulnerability that he’s seen from her in the entirety of her two weeks on their ship.

“One year ago, my husband and my two children were sailing across the Wan Sea to join me in Ba Sing Se where I was studying to be a healer. Seven days into their voyage, their travelers ship was ambushed by a small band of rogue pirates who claimed that they were sent by their captain to take the ship’s gold. There were seven casualties. My husband and my children made up three of the seven.”

She does not cry, and her voice does not waver, but he hears the grief all the same.

“I don’t know what two children could possibly do or say to incur a pirate’s wrath, but it can’t possibly justify a death sentence. And after I heard the news, the only thing I had left was the name of my family’s murderer.”

“Zhao.”

She holds his gaze and a breath of understanding passes between them. It was not an accident that she was on their ship.

Zuko’s voice is solemn and tinged with warning. “How do you know you can succeed in killing him?”

“Those with nothing left to lose will always fight harder than those only looking to gain.”

Inwardly, his respect for her doubles.

“Why do you think this will help me?”

One slender brow arcs in a gesture that brings her back to her usual dry, witty self. “Quartermaster, I would have to be blind, deaf, and dead to miss how spectacularly unpopular your Captain is aboard his own ship.” Her expression morphs into something softer, something more honest. “You’ll make a much better Captain. The crew already respects your authority more than that asshole’s. The only reason they haven’t already committed a mutiny is probably because they are waiting for your cue.”

He scowls. “Flattery won’t get you any favors from me.”

The whites of her eyes flash at him as she rolls them. “I’m not flattering you, you idiot. And even if I was, that doesn’t make it untrue. Look, we don’t have a lot of time, and while I would much rather prefer having your help in this, I’ll do it on my own if I have to.”

Zuko purses his lips, eyes roaming over her face. There’s tension in her jaw that he hadn’t seen before and her chest rises and falls at a faster pace than normal, but the unrelenting steadiness in her gaze is what wins him in the end.

He watches his own hands give her his Uncle’s dagger almost as if he’s exited his own body and is looking on from above. His eyes rake across her smooth skin when she lifts her skirts and tucks the knife into the waistband of her undergarments. Dread and excitement wrestle each other in his stomach as he leads her towards Zhao’s quarters, and overall, Zuko is overwhelmed with the urge to drown himself in the dark waves on the horizon.

With a final look of determination, she disappears through the heavy double doors into the candlelit Captain’s cabin, and then there is only the sound of the sea and the moon over his head.

Crew members approach him with their usual questions or come to offer their quartermaster a beer or two, but Zuko remains where he stands just outside the Captain’s doors.

Ten minutes and he hasn’t heard a sound.

Fifteen, and he can’t stop fiddling with his sword.

It is just past the twenty-minute mark when he hears a muffled thump that has his head jerking up in alarm.

After a few tense seconds, the doors are abruptly pulled open, and Zuko watches the woman’s—Katara’s—figure step into the threshold.

The candlelight behind her contrasts starkly with the light from the full moon above so that he can only make out the edges of her cheekbones, the glow of her eyes, and the rise and fall of her chest. His breath hitches.

The crew slowly begins to sense the shift in the atmosphere, especially since many of them had been acutely aware of any activity in that particular area since watching Zuko escort Katara into the lion’s den earlier. One by one, they shuffle towards the Captain’s doors until there is a crescent of rugged pirates surrounding her silent shadow.

Zuko watches her wait for them to settle, watches her raise her chin in a motion that he can’t decide is strength or nervousness.

And then he watches her raise her right arm, Zhao’s severed head dangling in her slim, noblewoman’s hand. Her left is clutching their dead Captain’s glinting sword, the bloody tip dragging on the ground.

Strength, he decides.

“I’ll understand if you decide to execute me, and I will not fight your decision, as it is your right to end my life for the life of your Captain’s.” Her voice is calm and rings clearly over the sound of the ocean waves. “But, your Captain was not a man worthy of following, and I suspect that many of you are in agreement with me. He was vicious, selfish, and cruel, and he would have led you to ruin, not glory. Which is why I have provided you with the opportunity for a more appropriate option.”

Her gaze lands on him, and Zuko feels a thrill of adrenaline shoot down his spine. It only intensifies when he realizes that every other eye has also turned to him.

“Captain Zuko has a fairly nice ring to it, don’t you think?” Her grin is just big enough for him to see it through the dark.

At first the deck is silent, hardly a soul daring to breath.

Then, like the sound of the opening canon shot in a battle, his first-mate Lu Ten shouts, “All in favor of Captain Zuko!”

As a chorus of approving shouts flood his senses, Zuko does not break eye-contact with Katara. Something passes between them, and if he were a more romantic kind of man, he might call it fate.

Predictably so, the crew votes to spare Katara’s life, and the next hour has Zuko bouncing from one of his mates to the other, always being greeted with the smell of freshly poured beer and sent on to the next with a hearty slap on the back.

All too soon, it is late in the night and half of the—his, he thinks with a start—half of his crew is passed out over crates of supplies or across each other. The other half continue to drink in celebration, different folk songs being carelessly butchered with the exuberance of men well past their body’s tolerance.

Zuko finds himself leaning on the edge of the helm, enjoying the cool sea breeze that calms his flushed cheeks.

At the sound of light footsteps, he looks up to see the woman—Katara, he amends—make her way to him. She stops a few feet away, bringing one hand to rest on the ship’s wheel.

She’s changed from her blood and salt stained dress into a pair of loose trousers and a cream-colored tunic that might have been white at some earlier point. The sleeves, that he assumes would normally fall long past the tips of her fingers, are rolled up to her elbows, and he infers that she has raided one of his men’s wardrobes. Her hair, however, is what truly transforms her appearance. Instead of the precise updo or fraying braid, it hangs utterly unencumbered, falling in loose waves over her shoulders.

For once, he is the one to begin the conversation.

“Of all the people aboard my ship, you were the last person I expected to perform a coup d’état.”

She chuckles softly in response, and he finds that he likes the sound. “Well, that was the goal.”

She comes to stand beside him, leaning her forearms on the wooden rail. Her expression is the most relaxed he’s ever seen it, and he knows that a large part of her has now found peace.

He’s a little too buzzed to care that he’s staring. “So, what’s next for you?”

Her shoulder bumps his and the playful shine to her eyes tells him it was purposeful. “I’ve noticed that there’s a shameful lack of feminine representation on board your ship, Captain.”

Zuko grins. “Then you obviously haven’t seen Chan when he’s had too much rum.”

Katara snorts lightly, elbow jabbing him in the ribs. “As I was saying... I think you ought to fix this grossly disproportionate issue as soon as possible.”

“You’re right, I should. Now, where to find some feminine representation...”

The punch she levels at his arm stings more than he was expecting it to, and the laugh he lets out is so natural that it sounds foreign to his own ears.

“Is that supposed to convince me of your femininity? Because I’m fairly certain you hit harder than most of my crew.”

She sniffs haughtily, but he can see her lips pursing in an effort to refrain from smiling. “Perhaps I’ll just take my extremely proper and dainty female presence to another Captain’s ship where it’ll be better appreciated.”

“You could,” he turns to face her more fully, voice lowering in pitch, “but once they found what you’re truly capable of, I don’t think there’s a Captain alive who could see you as just another proper woman. You deserve a Captain and crew who know what you really are and aren’t afraid of it.”

His eyes are fixed on hers with a weight he can’t seem to hold back, and her eyelids flutter just the slightest bit.

She tilts her head up. “Is that a job offer?”

His head tilts down, but there is space still between them that he carefully maintains. “It’s whatever you want it to be, Yokai.”

Her lips twitch and her whole face seems to soften.

“Then I suppose you’re stuck with me, Captain.”

He smiles. “Welcome aboard, Katara.”

#here is part 2! hope you guys enjoyed it! this was fun to write :)#i know i know it's so utterly cliche and everything that happens just conveniently works out for everyone (except zhao but fuck him)#but hey at least it's fun #zutara month #zutara month 2018 #zutara month 2018: day 18 #zutara #zuko #katara #zhao #lu ten cameo #chan cameo #lol i just had to throw them in there #tw violence #tw blood #my zutara stuff

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thekonnection82 · 6 years ago

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As promised, Mamamoo completes their year long project ‘Four Seasons Four Colors’ with the release of their ninth mini album ‘White Wind’ on March 14. ‘Four Seasons Four Colors’ had goals of building up Mamamoo’s artistic repertoire by exploring new sounds that are unexpected of the group. Using seasons and colors for the concept gives the quartet wide range to accomplish these goals. Reviewing the last two mini albums (‘Red Moon’ and ‘Blue;s’) have been awesome, and I felt obliged to post about the final piece of the project.

The concept for this album treats white as the blank canvas for Mamamoo to freely create an array of colors by using the colors they had showcased in the past, conceptually both primary and neon colors. Mamamoo pays homage to their start as they use their bright colors in a modernized way parallel to their jazzy, retro-pop concept of debut. The way they are bolder and cooler with the pop of neon gave me the essence of their previous releases under the primary colors. Even the album cover design used a gradient accent of blue and purple that reminded me of their mini album cover for ‘Purple’ that was released prior to this project, which they first expressed the concept of mixing colors to symbolize a new sound. With all this said and seeing the teasers, I wondered if they were in any way revisiting their old sound.

I’ll be quoting Mamamoo as they gave descriptions of each song in their highlight medley video.

Let’s get to it!

‘White Wind’ Album Art

‘Where R U’

R&B song that expresses the heart fluttering feelings of waiting for a destined lover, as if they’re playing hide-and-seek.

This track took me by surprise by how airy and light the production was. The plucked chords reminded me of strings from the violin family, and the flute synth notes created a refreshing, dreamy sound. If you listen closely during the pre-chorus you can hear xylophones chiming in and it plays as a cute little accent. These parts gave me the feeling that I was probably going to transcend into heaven, but the guitar and the main beat helped balance out the mentioned parts as if to keep listeners grounded. The vocals expressed well about wondering where their future lover is. Although Mamamoo sang lightly, they didn’t sound weak or broken but rather firm. The way the song ended felt abrupt and awkward, only to realize it emphasized the wonder that surrounded the repeated question.

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‘Gogobebe’ (Title Track)

The song uses the ‘jijibee (…)’ from Kim Gunmo‘s ‘Jjanga‘ as a motif for the lyrics and melody. You will be able to see Mamamoo having fun and enjoying themselves without clinging to past loves or things that have happened.

Mamamoo embodies a liberating dance track here. Solar and Hwasa have entrancing control of the refrain as it draws you in and encourages you to continue partying with the group. Wheein delivers her lines in a sassy and chic way that you can forget her soft side. Moonbyul, raps her self-written lines coolly and with ease, and I appreciate her parts had two differing tones. The chorus’ melody reminded me of R&B girl groups of the 1990’s, which gave a different kind of retro vibe (compared to their rookie funky-pop releases). Within the chorus, the line where the members sang in unison gives emphasis to the theme of letting everything go. Yet, I find the theme ironic when the arrangement and production of this song sounded like it was crafted carefully and intricately. I never would have thought the combination of reggaeton and this latin guitar riff would be tasteful. So this is a fun, colorful track that will make you move in any way as you please.

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Check out ‘Jjanga‘ by Kim Gun Mo, who co-composed this track.

‘Waggy‘

Bossanova-style song that tickles your heart like a spring wind, and has witty lyrics. It’s a song that’s like listening to a friend who has fallen in love and can’t hide their heart fluttering excitement.

When the simple instrumentals started playing, I already had good feelings towards this song as it sounded upbeat and sweet. ‘Waggy’ really oozes fluttering affection, perfect for the spring season. The vocals are charming as they sing like a fresh breeze, and bounced to the rhythm like animated springing flowers. Mamamoo’s “beagle” humor could not be avoided as they added cute but subtle animal sounds throughout the song. The trumpet solo was a nice, classy touch that rides along the track’s wholesomeness. This quaint song was a little reminiscent to their similar, but more relaxing bossa nova track called ‘My Hometown’ (2016). It was nice to hear Mamamoo do this style of song again as it reminded listeners of their strength in making something a little old sound new while maintaining their boisterous group personality. You can definitely see this come to life as they performed ‘Waggy’ on music shows as they dressed up in various costumes and finding amusement out of Hwasa’s tsundere attitude.

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‘25‘

…still clumsy at 25, missing her natural, pure younger days while still loving her own self now, a step closer to her dream by maturing strongly.

Since Wheein holds the color and wind symbol for this project, ‘25’ is the album’s obligatory solo track. Knowing her discography, Wheein is usually the one being featured, or has had a rapper feature on her tracks. It was nice to hear Wheein sound relaxed yet her serious effort was still prevalent. Even co-writing this song, ‘25’ gives listeners a chance to hear a personal, introspective side of Wheein. Besides the lyrics, the smoothness and steady groove of this song gives a sense of nostalgia, especially for those who grew up with ‘90s-early 2000s R&B. The simple arrangement of guitar and snap beats didn’t overshadow Wheein’s varying vocals as it expressed genuine gratitude. Mamamoo’s fanbase, or Moomoos, would find this track so obvious in style as they are familiar with her leaning towards R&B and soul. It’s a down-to-earth, chill song which acted as a nice break between the livelier songs throughout the album.

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On the set of ‘You Hee-yeol’s Sketchbook’ .

Backstage at M Countdown.

‘Bad Bye‘

Pop slash R&B track that ardently expresses the painful feelings of not being able to accept an approaching breakup. As the farewell is too painful and bad, a ‘good bye’ is expressed as ‘bad bye’.

This song started off with sad piano notes and I assumed it would be Mamamoo’s classic pop-ballad like the way they performed on music show “Immortal Songs 2” or their diva-esque ‘I Miss You’ (2016). But the thought was immediately denied when the mid-tempo beat with brief pulsating synth high hats, rain drops as snaps, and deep basses came in. The vocals are strong throughout the song, even at their lowest, softest parts. The melody sounded distressing and reminiscent (again) of old-school pop slash R&B tracks of the early millennium. The arrangement briefly alters during Moonbyu’s first rap part, and I thought it was interesting how dark it felt. Overall, listeners can belt out their heartache with some rhythm and soul.

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‘My star‘

It expresses ‘You are my star’ to someone who can’t be compared to anyone else. The heavy bass and trendy beat hit you powerfully.

A few seconds of the intro created a dramatic mood. Mamamoo is definitely right when they say that this song hits you hard, especially since the heavy bass drives the song. To match the heavy bass’ booming energy, the vocals had to sound mighty and confident as well. Solar’s tone fits perfectly for this, and Hwasa’s raspiness added some texture as it stands out more when reaching for those loud, high notes. The rap sounded gritty and flowed rhythmically well even though it was so brief. I kind of expected the bridge to be totally toned down, but there were spurts of the resonant notes (in the background) that tells me the energy was not going to be halted at any time. Kudos to Wheein who sprinkles the ending chorus with her falsettos. This song was very enjoyable and can uplift one’s mood.

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‘4season (Outro)‘

It’s a song that brings Mamamoo’s ‘Four Seasons Four Color’ project into one. It has lyrics about each of the album themes, ‘moon, wind, flower, and sun’

This definitely ties up the ‘Four Seasons Four Colors’ project nicely. The arrangement felt warm and laid back, and it had me reminiscing of what Mamamoo tried to prove with this project for the past year. It’s parallel to their song ‘Paint Me’, but instead of talking about the colors they mention each season. Like how Mamamoo has described in their highlight medley, the outro encourages listeners and fans alike to continue on making memories with the group, which implied that just because the project is over, does not mean their musical ventures end.

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Promoting to vote on M Countdown.

Promoting on Music Bank.

‘White Wind’ for the majority of the album reached the retro vibes in a way I did not expect. Rather than the funk and blues similar in their debut, Mamamoo took elements of 90s-2000s R&B pop and showed a more modernized confidence. It is a unique take of fusing old trends with the current trends of programmed music. I mostly enjoyed the diverse beats and production of this album, thanks to the magic provided by Cosmic Girl, and Rainbow Bridge World’s Cosmic Sound, Park Soo Wang, and hit maker CEO Kim Do Hoon. They were able to provide clean, vibrant backdrops while keeping Mamamoo’s vocals shining upfront. This EP also compiled the gists of previous albums: the freshness of spring like ‘Yellow Flower’, the bold and daring like ‘Red Moon’, and the chicness like ‘Blue;s’. Mixing these sounds gave Mamamoo more to paint with and it has produced vivid and entertaining tunes for any kind of listeners.

What do you think of ‘White Wind’? Comment your thoughts down below!

Take Our Poll

Written by: Eliana L.

Sources: Mamamoo Facebook | Mamamoo Twitter | Mamamoo Youtube | TV-People Youtube | Mnet K-POP

Check out Mamamoo's newest album 'White Wind' ! As promised, Mamamoo completes their year long project ‘Four Seasons Four Colors’ with the release of their ninth mini album ‘

#four_season_four_color #girl group #girlgroup #gogobebe #kmusic #KPOP #mamamoo #mini album review #mini-album #music #news #RBW #The KONNECTION 82 #whitewind #white_wind

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garfieldhotsexylasagnayeahbaby69 · 6 years ago

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personal jesus version rankings

condensed because i dont have time for all that but still extremely long due to the sheer quantity of covers out there

#1: depeche mode. the original, the ultimate. cant be outdone. hits the perfect venn diagram sweet spot of gay goth 80s cowboy energy. 10/10 #2: gravity kills. tones down the gay and horny in favor of vaguely sinister 90s industrial rock noise, but still a rollicking good time, and in my opinion the best you can get without going for the 100% grade-a version #3: johnny cash. this jesus truly is personal. 0% horny, very little gay, but communicates the singer's earnest search for meaning and spiritual guidance with an off-kilter acoustic guitar and cowboy piano combo that is surprisingly endearing. also love the interpretation of the classic ‘reach out and touch faith’ line. while it is harder to party to, it is nonetheless very much worth a listen. #4: elvya. inexplicable SAW-esque intro to the music video, but the rest of it is her screaming and flailing about in a flimsy nightgown, which i love. while she doesn’t LOOK like she’s fully getting into the spirit of things, she sounds absolutely demented, which is truly all i can ask for. would wholeheartedly recommend. #5: ko ko mo. slow, sensual, and sleazy, with a retro rock-and-roll ending. not my absolute favorite but still very good and true in spirit, plus the zeppelin-esque screeching sets it apart from its peers. would expect to hear in a smoky dive bar in the late 70s. if you’re looking for something a little different, this might be the personal jesus for you. #6: flowertrip. sounds like a cover you would hear at a free outdoor music festival for dads, but that’s not a bad thing. shades of van halen in the first guitar solo, then randomly segues into an interpretation of ‘sweet dreams are made of this’ by way of ’seven nation army’ in the second guitar solo. honestly i have no idea what is going on here but i’m having a great time #7: leo moracchioli. leo delivers again with this fun little bop. not as remarkable as gravity kills or as touchingly genuine as johnny cash, but still plenty of fun with some interesting finger work over the refrain. if you’re not a fan of acoustic country-ish music though this will probably be very boring for you #8: broken peach. nothing special about the sound, aside from the chorus of female voices, but their skeleton theme, dramatic purple lighting, and completely unnecessary military fancy dress outfits are catnip to my mall goth sensibilities. honestly i enjoy their aesthetic more than the music itself. #9: pixelydian. i question why anyone felt it necessary to convert this song into chiptune, but i have to give them credit for trying. #10: toy division. refreshingly unique in its funky, jazzy europop interpretation, but retains absolutely none of the character of the original. might as well be a different song entirely, so although i like it i still have to give it a lower rating #11: def leppard. perfectly mediocre. not bad, not good, the guitar is decent and that’s all i can really say about it. #12: lollipop lust kill: again, mediocre. pretty much just…loud. yeah. it’s not bad or anything it’s just not very special compared to everything else out there. also i’m not in love with the end, or the singer’s monotone ‘reach out’. #13: marilyn manson. leaves me feeling deeply conflicted, because while i think the song itself is very very good, marilyn manson is a racist shitbag so i cannot in good conscience give him a high rating. if it was anyone else this would be a solid 3 or 4, but it is not, so it gets to wallow at the bottom with the rejects. #14: karen souza: while i would normally be inclined to give this one a boost for daring to put a 1930s nightclub singer spin on a dick-out 80s banger, this cover is flaccid, dull, and disappointing. might as well be renamed ‘impersonal jesus’. i feel bad being so mean because it’s not like she’s a poor singer, but come on, at least spice it up a LITTLE.

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dandelionpie · 6 years ago

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Okay @mentalwires all I can say is you fucking asked for it. This is

Madeline’s Lengthy and Mostly Very Positive Track-by-Track Review of

Off to the Races

by Jukebox the Ghost

(feel free to follow along at home on your Personal Listening Device; it’s all on Spotify or wherever)

(and I’m not going to follow any formatting rules because this isn’t being graded so fuck it quotes are in italics)

I don’t know if it’s just because I listened to it over and over again, but this album is an album. Friends, there are motifs in this album. There are themes. There’s something that’s not quite a narrative, but a strange awakening to the crises that plague people who have reached a certain stage of human development just beyond the beginning of real adulthood.

1. Jumpstarted

Our speaker is awfully self-aware for someone who admits to a chronic lack of self-awareness. This song is like the “I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You” by Tom Waits for a new generation, except instead of tragic it’s just, like…incredibly goofy. It also follows in the footsteps of many other songs (the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” springs to mind), it rehashes a very familiar theme: Young Man sees Young Woman*; young man becomes instantly fixated on an imagined future with her; young man admits that his imaginings are the product of his deranged imagination but, though he fully admits to his own emotionally compromised state in great detail (and your gravity / my depravity / won’t take my advice), he refuses to relinquish the fantasy and face reality, even as he does so in the utterance of the lyrics. Rather, he accepts his eventual heartbreak to be as inescapable as the laws of physics - what goes up must come down, after all, and as foolish as his infatuation seems, it’s even more foolish to try to change something as immutable as that. It’s too ridiculous to be properly sad, but we feel for him all the same.

There’s definitely a gender element happening here. I’ve been that guy, but far more often, to greater and lesser extents, I’ve been that girl. We have this idea in our culture that women are obsessed with love and will throw themselves into relationships with men at the drop of a hat, but I’ve seen it played out far more often the other way. In my (limited! human! biased! don’t @ me!) observation, women may throw themselves into the emotional side of a relationship, but the planning part (this person fulfills everything I want from a spouse/life partner/parent of my anticipated children) and therefore it must be Fate)…well, I haven’t done that since I was about ten. I’ve seen grown-ass men do it on multiple occasions, to me and many of my female friends. So like…make of that what you will.

The song also does that cute thing where it name-drops the title of the album in the lyrics, and I love that.

*the object of the speaker’s affections in this particular song remains mostly ungendered except for one she pronoun in the bridge. If you ignored that one tiny “she” (or changed the gender of the speaker), it would be easy to make this song about a very real and serious problem facing today’s LGBTQ Youth: Queer and Here syndrome**. That is, when you see another person of more-or-less your persuasion and they are around your age, breathing, and moderately attractive, you tend to fall in love with them regardless of actual chemistry or lack thereof. Again: I have been the speaker, and I have been the object.

**EDIT: Ben Thornewill, who wrote the song…might be queer? I can’t find any info either way, except for he helped with a fundraiser for Everyone is Gay one time. Someone with a longer attention span should google this for me.

Enjoying this nonsense? Click below for the rest!

2. Everybody’s Lonely

This track continues the theme of powerlessness in the face of one’s own self-awareness (dragged into another heartbreak / like a moth into a flame) while implicitly making the way for a gentle interrogation of the music industry. Are we programmed for broken romance? Probably, but we’re sure the hell not going to stop singing about it. And we have to admit, it’s more than a little diverting. The singer is having a marvelous time with the vocals for how much he’s complaining, and the track switches up the speed and time signature more than once (there’s some sophisticated musical term I’m failing to call to mind here, but dammit Jim I’m an English major not a music doctor).

The title itself is a simple statement on the nature of humanity, and a somewhat comforting one (to me, anyway). It’s hard, but if everybody’s lonely, then…well, no one is, right? And, of course, the lyrics could also be read (heard?) as a comment on the content of this very album, as well as the greater Jukebox the Ghost canon, which, self-admittedly, mostly concerns either love or drinking too much (and often both). Lampshading? Probably a little, but I think it works.

3. People Go Home

I will admit: I hated this song until I saw the album performed live. It’s just so damned cynical, and at the same time describes a lifestyle (car! boss who wears a watch! wife and children and a house and a dog!) my generation seems to have given up on aspiring to. Because the American Dream is an illusion, etc. But the thing about it is, despite its dour outlook on the life of its subject, the song itself is just so much fun.

The metaphor of the calendar pages being torn off and thrown away would be a bit too cliché in a more serious track, but the irrepressibly catchy beat makes it work somehow. The repetitiveness is really artful - of course it’s repeating itself; it’s a song, but it also evokes the passage of time and the subject’s own mortality (the tick of the clock / and the tick of the clock / mark the moments ’til the ticking stops). And the abrupt end of the song is…well, actually a little unsettling in light of its lyrical content.

Another motif arises: are we becoming who we hate? Is it inevitable that we should do so in growing up? And, again - if there’s nothing we can do about it, should we perhaps make an effort to enjoy the ride?

4. Fred Astaire

First, a confession: this song is primarily for me about the Blupjeans pairing in The Adventure Zone, so like…I’m gonna do my best to ignore that aspect in my analysis but no promises.

I love this song.

I think it’s the strongest track on this album From the very first bars, it’s psyching you up for something, and the powerful opening vocals do not disappoint. This is an excellent showcase of Ben Thornewill’s raw vocal power.

I’m also a huge sucker for the “man who has landed the partner of his dreams hardly daring to believe his luck” trope (cf: Blupjeans, Jake/Amy from B99, tons of other cute pairings I can’t call to mind just at the moment). There’s something so beautifully pure about watching someone realize how fortunate they are to have someone great in their life. In this case, the speaker seems almost playfully resentful as he wonders at his partner’s inexplicable admiration of him - “what are you even doing with a dork like me?” he seems to ask.

But in the bridge, he contrasts that playful exasperation with a genuine admiration of his beloved’s clarity of insight - when I lose myself / there is no one else / who ever sees through me quite like you, he points out, and something about his tone feels genuinely grateful. So for me, this resonates on a personal level as well - in my life, I’m continually astounded by the people who have seen me at my worst and continue to refrain from telling me I suck.

Well, that was distressingly sincere. Don’t worry; I turn back into a snarky pumpkin in just a sec.

5. Time and I

If previous tracks have hinted at themes of growing up and having way too many feelings about it, this track drives those concepts home with a freaking sledgehammer. I have less trouble with it than “People Go Home,” but it’s still a bit too relatable if you ask me. There’s a deeply sympathetic undercurrent of frustration (try as I might / it ain’t no friend of mine) - this guy’s been making an effort, and he’s announcing a sort of surrender, even as he continues to beg time to slow down for him.

I’m intrigued by we’re not the way we used to be - is he talking to a third party, or to time itself? If the former, the feeling t is one of those universal heartbreaks we all go through at this point. People don’t just change - relationships do too, and that can be even more frustrating and harder to pin down. And if it’s the latter, isn’t there something too beautifully futile about the act of begging an abstract concept to act against its nature?

This whole album is so wonderfully human.

Overall, the lyrics feel a bit weaker than the rest of the album to me, but I love the way it sounds. The vocal tracks in the bridge layer on top of each other one by one in this really evocative way, piano is perfect for a track like this - since it’s both percussive and melodic, it invokes bittersweetness of the inexorable passage of time. Maybe? I dunno, just spitballing here.

6. Diane

I hadn’t actually paid much attention to this track until I saw it performed live and the singer got the audience to sing part of the chorus for him. Neat trick, dude. I still didn’t like the song all that much until I saw @mentalwires spin very enthusiastic rope dart to it. Anyway - like many songs by Jukebox the Ghost, it would be downright obnoxious if it weren’t such a jam.

What really grabs me about this song is the line about not being able to focus. Maybe it’s just an ADD thing, and it’s certainly not an original thought - of course you can’t focus, dude, you’re basically worshipping this chick - but it’s true that people we like are distracting, and it is highly inconvenient. And it’s way more fun than most of the other inconvenient things that afflict our little species, so that doesn’t help matters. I relate similarly to I can’t sleep / why even bother, although that probably has more to do with my insomnia than anything else.

Damn I love power pop.

It’s another self-imposed tragedy — our dude doesn’t know how to let go of the idea of this girl, but how well do they actually know each other? The bridge (You make me feel like I’m alive / you make me feel like I’m the only one) brings home what the speaker’s been hinting at since the start of the track - it’s much more about how he feels than about the person he feels it for. Sometimes / I don’t even think you know my name could be read two ways - either she knows him but acts like she doesn’t (rude), or they’ve never even actually met.*

All the while, he begs her to tell him her thoughts, but does he actually want to know? And if they haven’t met, then how could she tell him she’s thinking about him at all? How is she even going to hear what he’s saying? Well, of course, she can’t - the classic futility of the pop ballad returns. So much in this song is about being unheard, and that fascinates me.

An observation: Songs in this vein hardly ever give any detail about the ostensible (usually female) subject. This is probably at least a little bit to make it easier for everyone involved to identify with them, but it also makes it clear that the speaker’s love has far more to do with his own hang-ups than with the supposed object of his affections. And doesn’t the way we love say so much about us? Maybe that’s why I’m such a sucker for romance.

*The tertiary Queer and Here interpretation makes itself available yet again. I mean, the whole bit about sweaty palms goes all the way back to Sappho, you guys.**

**Fuck I’m such an English major send help

7. See You Soon

Imma be real with y’all for a sec - I couldn’t handle this song at first. It’s about losing a person, and not even in a way that’s final. It gives me sort of the same feeling as “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop (read it; it’s short and will tear your little heart from your chest). In both that poem and this song, the ambiguity of the addressee’s identity makes the loss all the more poignant - is the speaker addressing a lover or a friend? Is it both? And which is worse?

The painful wisdom imparted by the passage of time is another motif that keeps coming up in this album. Our dude used to get mad at the small things, and he’s realized what’s actually important, but like every lesson learned the hard way, it’s too late to apply it to the situation in question. And perhaps he never would’ve come to that revelation without the accompanying loss, but that doesn’t make it any less excruciating.

Remember when your life felt like it would be never-ending - if you enjoy the particular kind of masochism brought about by that sentiment, I’d encourage you to check out “I Wanna Get Better” by Bleachers. Not to get too philosophical, but grown-ups have this thing where they lecture kids about how they think they’re immortal. And we don’t believe it when we’re kids, at least I didn’t - I wasn’t particularly inclined to take dumb risks, or so I thought. But (dammit) somewhere, we actually do realize that life isn’t permanent, that the place we grew up isn’t the entire world, and that there’s so much of that world that we’ll simply never experience. Wondering how a relationship could have gone differently is more than just a painful (and arguably necessary) experience - it also calls to mind all the different directions our lives could take, and forces us to watch as all those paths converge into one.

It’s another special mid-20s crisis - by that age, we’ve had a few close friendships and relationships, and we’ve experienced the end of some of them. And after that end, we have to change, both as a result of the loss and - you guessed it - the unstoppable, unbending passage of time. If I say it enough it might come true, the speaker says as he leads into the final repetition of the chorus, and we get the sense that he almost believes it. Is it denial, willful self-delusion, or genuine hope?

8. Boring

This is the track that really got me thinking about this album. If “People Go Home” stands on a soapbox wagging its finger at The American Dream™, this song drunkenly embraces it in a bar a few hours later. And, like “People Go Home,” I sort of hated it until I noticed what a great time Tommy Siegel was having with it.

We begin with the inexorability of time again - the seasons are changing / but my world always stays the same. Of course, the use of “lame” to describe undesirability is crummy for obvious reasons, but it also reads as delightfully teenage - our friend is desperately clinging to whatever vestiges of youth remain to him. There’s also a charmingly youthful tendency to exaggerate - I guess they’ll procreate until they die / everyone is boring / everything is lame / everybody thinks they’re not the same could have come straight from the mouth of a fourteen-year-old in the back of a car on a family road trip.

What I love love love love about this song is how smoothly the speaker seems to come around over the course of it. He begins with a distressing observation: all my friends are having kids / but nobody’s sure why. And by the end of the song, he’s worked out exactly why. He’s a little ashamed to say that he’s figured out just what the big deal is. And he’s going through some internal conflict, but that doesn’t mean he’s got to be shy about how he feels.

After wondering for a minute how he got this way (I webmd myself but somehow nothing’s ever wrong has to be one of the most #relatable lyrics I’ve ever heard), he smoothly switches from lambasting the Nuclear Family™ to flattering his addressee:

Baby let’s get boring

Let’s get old and lame

Let’s get a house and kids and change your name

‘ cause I don’t think you’re boring

I don’t think you’re lame

Let’s get a house and summer up in Maine

(kind of a lazy rhyme there at the end, but still sorta cute)

While he acknowledges his frustration with his desire to become that which he most detests, he also acknowledges that the alternative is much worse: I’d rather rot in hell / than watch you become someone lame with someone else.* And yeah, growing up resolves a lot of exciting questions into formulaic predictability, but if you find someone to share it with who’s interesting, you can enjoy it anyway. It’s either a cute little bit of poetry or the most adorably fumbling marriage proposal in the history of time.

We could be so boring, he promises his intended, and he sounds, well, sort of excited about it. Because if everybody else thinks they’re not the same, he asks, why should we bother pretending? It’s not important if we’re actually boring. It’s that I don’t think you are. And I think I agree - the most important parts of any relationship only matter to the people in it.

I’m not sure what he’s doing to that guitar at the end there, but he sure is doing it.

*There’s another reading that he’s settling but I’ll go with the optimistic one thank you.

9. Simple as 1 2 3

I found this to be sort of a weird tone shift, but the more I listen to it, the better it fits. The lyrics are all about how you can’t fall in love without taking chances - a played-out theme that still meshes beautifully with this track’s youthful simplicity. When I saw this performed live, the singer literally counted on his fingers while he sang and played the piano, and it managed to be incredibly charming. Or maybe it was just his pretty pretty eyes.

When you feel your pulse / knock you over like an animal is so simple but so vivid and I’m not sure this is going anywhere; I just wanted to point it out.

The second verse,

So take a risk

and find a little love

hidden where you didn’t see it

‘cause the time you have is all the time you’ve got

briefly brings it back to the existential crisis that dominates most of this album, but it’s somehow much more optimistic with this new spin - life is short, so you might as well give the whole falling in love thing a whirl. And if it goes badly, hey, there’s always Track 7.

Lyrically, the bridge doesn’t do a whole lot, but I like how it just sort of sits there building on itself - it increases the tension, like, well, the moment of waiting in a corner before going over to talk to someone - and when the musical track drops out to leave only the singer’s voice, it’s like the strange silence that seems to accompany a difficult utterance, and okay, I’m definitely reading way too much into this. Whatever. Death of the author.

10. Colorful

So this is gonna get pretty sentimental, because that is the sort of track this is, and for that I halfheartedly apologize. In an album full of glibness and cynicism, this song stands out relatively devoid of artifice or dire warnings of death.

This song, to me, is about being an artist, and an aggressively happy one at that. I dunno if you’ve seen my art, but, well, it’s downright obnoxious. I mean - Wanna feel like a light in a dark place? Why yes, as a matter of fact; where do I sign. And For the lovers and the broken-hearted feels almost like a call to action - it’s important to bring out the beauty of the world for the people who want to revel in it and for the ones who might be too sad to notice it. All that stuff about trying to paint the world in a new way is probably meant to be a metaphor, but I like taking it literally. It makes me feel better about how I’ve chosen to spend the vast majority of my free time, dammit.

And while this track is pretty repetitive, it forms a perfect conclusion to an album that’s just as much about the ways we talk about romance as the romance itself. It’s one more frame to fit around the first two, if you like.

The bridge is a blatant and transparent excuse to show off Thornewill’s vocal range, for which I can hardly blame him. That man sings like a god.

Bonus Notes:

Stay the Night (single)

I know this one didn’t make it onto the album but I fucking love it. It’s so catchy, and I love that it doesn’t sound like “Pretty Woman” or “Come on Eileen” - I don’t feel like the guy is being coercive or weird. Sure, he’s lamenting that he can’t sleep with the object of his affections, but it’s very much a lament of circumstance - he can’t stay the night because they don’t have time, or they’ve got work in the morning, or it’s only their first date and they’re taking things slow, and you get the sense that he understands from the second verse - I’m singing Journey on the highway / I’m still believing; I’m still believing / that I’ll wake up beside you one day - it almost feels like a reassurance.

It also brings home a lot of themes that come up later in Off to the Races. We’re not getting any younger, and yeah, we might as well have fun with it. But again - I’m not getting a “To His Coy Mistress” vibe here. It’s feels much more along the lines of “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” Perhaps it’s just the evolving sexual mores of our society, or perhaps it’s that the speaker spends absolutely no time convincing his date - he simply states the obvious. It’s that universal thrill of something starting, and I am, as they say, here for it.

Anyway that was approximately 2.73 million times longer than I meant it to be. I guess I like talking about poetry? Who could have predicted this? (Really, I actually had a lot of fun with this, so if you liked it, let me know and maybe I’ll do it again sometime. Although, fair warning, it is liable to be about Fall Out Boy.)

#mentalwires #music #jukebox the ghost #music reviews #are apparently a thing i do now #sort of #i dunno if i'd call this a review

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deadcactuswalking · 4 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 24/10/2020 (Digga D, Justin Bieber, benny blanco)

Internet Money’s “Lemonade” featuring Don Toliver, NAV and Gunna finally hit #1 on the UK Singles Chart, and that’s today’s #1. Anyone else find it funny that NAV has a #1 hit in, well, any country? Anyway, welcome to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

A lot of our new arrivals from yesterday are gone entirely, including “Parlez-Vous Anglais” by Headie One featuring Aitch, mostly because only the three highest-performing songs from an artist can be in the chart at one time, so “Only You Freestyle” with Drake returned at #44. As well as that, other notable drop-outs from the UK Top 75 are “Mr. Right Now” by 21 Savage and Metro Boomin featuring Drake, “5AM” by M Huncho and Nafe Smallz exiting pretty prematurely, “Over Now” by Calvin Harris and the Weeknd, “Wishing Well” by the late Juice WRLD lasting longer than I expected, and “Heaven on My Mind” by Becky Hill and Segala. The biggest fall for the week is “Laugh Now Cry Later” by Drake and Lil Durk getting hit with the streaming cut down from #18 and #42 and the biggest is for last week’s debut “i miss u” by Jax Jones and Au/Ra up from #53 to #39. The only other returning entry we have is that garbage “Papi Chulo” song by Octavian and Skepta back for seemingly no reason. That doesn’t mean we don’t have 11 new arrivals, though, so let’s get started.

NEW ARRIVALS

#69 – “Train Wreck” – James Arthur

Produced by Adam Argyle

X Factor winner and insecure homophone who somehow pissed Frankie Boyle off on Twitter in 2012 James Arthur is back with his latest single since his first comeback album which was surprisingly successful, even stateside, mostly because of soppy, unlistenable ballad “Say You Won’t Let Go”. So, what’s to be expected out of this frog-voiced adult contemporary lad today? Well, apparently this is actually not his latest single choice for that lead off of the fourth album and rather just a deep cut from his 2016 album Back from the Edge. It’s the sixth track on the album, it’s four years old and never had a single push so I can only assume... TikTok? I don’t know, I think everyone’s feeling like this year’s been a bit of a train wreck so is the song good? I don’t know, I think his belting is impressive but pretty aggravating with only the soft piano backing and it does sound like he’s straining himself a bit here. The pouring out of his emotions during the dark place he was in between 2013 and 2016 is pretty effective and admittedly I feel kind of bad for the guy but, man, you can tell this is the first song he wrote for the album as it feels pretty underwritten, with a lot of reliance on that chorus, which is powerful but not nearly enough as he wants it to be. He explores a religious angle in the first verse that goes absolutely nowhere. Looking at the comments on the Genius page and ignoring the ones saying “This is epic” or “Anyone here from Harry Potter TikToks?”, I can tell it’s helping people and if this really is impactful to his audience then all fairness to him, it does its job. I’m just not a fan.

#68 – “Heat Waves” – Glass Animals

Produced by Dave Bayley

I swear “trainwreck” and “heatwave” are usually one word. Huh. Glass Animals are an indie-pop project fronted by Dave Bayley and I’ve never felt the need to look into them, and whilst I always assumed they were big – especially this recent third album which did big numbers to mixed reception – I didn’t think they were “chart in the top 100” big, especially not too months after the album release when another single is clearly being pushed. It has got a couple remixes though, particularly a Diplo one, so I guess this is a good time to first check Bayley and co out. Maybe my definition of “psychedelic pop” is different to Pitchfork’s (who didn’t even like this album) but I didn’t expect pitch-shifted vocals put against trap instrumentals and 808s that drown out all of the musicality that goes into the watery synths and guitar picking under the pretty rough vocals here, saved by some cool melodic ideas and multi-tracking that sounds pretty good in the verses. That chorus is lazy and quickly loses its lustre though, and it is not nearly climactic enough for that point in the bridge where its cuts out and returns to work or have any impact at all. The lyrics are pretty fluffy and non-descript, apart from the refrain of “Road shimmer wigglin’ the vision”... okay, I understand why you pitch-shifted that one. Yeah, this is pretty garbage, as are these remixes, although admittedly I kind of enjoy Diplo’s future bass rendition. You can’t do much to make a badly-written song sound interesting as an EDM remixer. I listened to that “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” song out of curiosity and... just because your “ayys” sound more like “ehs” doesn’t mean your trap-rap is suddenly art pop. Also:

“Space Ghost Coast To Coast” combines bits and pieces of millennial childhood nostalgia with musings on school shootings.

Joy. Next.

#67 – “PMW” – M Huncho and Nafe Smallz

Produced by Quincy Tellem

The drill MF DOOM (in aesthetic, not ability) and some nasal-voiced idiot who is not selling himself well with that stage name make a collaborative album produced by Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em. Here’s their ode to Profit Margins and Wages. Okay, it’s just them trading bars over an actually pretty damn good trap beat, with a killer choral vocal sample and some skittering hi-hats with a high enough pace that it makes Nafe Smallz seem mildly engaged. M Huncho sounds fine here, but the chorus here is pretty rough for both of them, and it just sounds really awkward. I do like Nafe’s second verse here, the flows he uses are pretty catchy and he sounds alive for once. What do you expect me to say about this though? They don’t rap anything interesting, the trap beat is good but not particularly interesting and the performances are mildly entertaining at best. It’s not nearly as amusing as the last single I liked from Huncho, “Pee Pee”. I’m not surprised this didn’t debut very high, and I guess it’ll drop off next week like nothing ever happened.

#65 – “One More Time” – Not3s featuring AJ Tracey

Produced by Eyes Adoasi and Remedee

Well, this duo have worked together a bunch of times before, and are undeniably preferable to M Huncho and Nafe Smallz, even if I’m not necessarily a big fan of either artist. This seems to be a lead-off single for Not3s’ third record as well as an interpolation of Britney Spears’ “...Baby One More Time” with a pretty cute pitch-shifted female vocal acting as the main melody for the track... and, yeah, this is what I expect from AJ Tracey. There’s an obvious UK garage flavour to the track – it does feel like a modernised throwback – and AJ’s spitting pretty competently, even if his flow is pretty basic and at times janky. Not3s is even more janky in the pre-chorus but the harmonising on the chorus and flow on the second verse is pretty damn impressive and dare I say charming. If he wants to go into this smooth R&B-rap direction on this type of UK garage beat I approve fully and I would be excited for that upcoming album. It kind of reminds me of Jeremih, to be completely honest, and I’m not sure exactly where I get that comparison but he sounds great. The beat does feel like it stagnates, especially during AJ’s verse actually – it might be the weak link stopping this from becoming great – but it doesn’t overstay its welcome and the 8-bit sound effects during AJ’s verse do stop this from being boring, though I still prefer a fair few of AJ’s other singles, like “Kiss and Tell” with Skepta which the song immediately reminded me of. It could have actually done with no guest verse but I know Not3s needs that promo so I’m not complaining about this. I hope to see it in the top 40 soon.

#62 – “Perkosex” – D-Block Europe

Produced by Gwiz and Roki

“Perkosex”. Wow, and I thought these guys couldn’t get dumber. We have a third DBE album cut this week and I’m already impressed by the awful pun in the title and the fact that this is literally taken from a YouTube producer’s (FREE) Calboy/Polo G type beat. Classy. This is a more downbeat song for the duo, with two verses, kind of. In fact, there’s no chorus, just one verse from Dirtbike LB who actually starts off the song with some spoken word and pathetic “Ski” ad-libs – leave that to Young Adz, who fragments his verse with a pointless and awkward bridge, as if his verse didn’t fill up that quota anyway. We have an acoustic guitar, pitched-up vocal sample that comes in to waste time every so often, and actually cuts Adz’s verse in two. Both LB and Adz croon and mumble, barely staying on the beat, with Adz mumbling so much on his first part of the verse that I initially thought this was just an outro to a song that lasted one and a half minutes, but, no, there’s an extra minute to go and Adz adz nothing to the track that needed that second half of the verse. Neither of the rappers are any funny here, but at least LB compares his friends to terrorists and says he’s got shots in his mouth like a peppermint... I mean, he sounds more mentally stable than he usually does on these songs, I guess. The second half of that Adz verse starts off with either him barely staying on-topic or just a complete plot twist.

You signed up for a drug dealer, not a drug user

And the next line:

And one of my toxic traits is that I love too much

Again, classy. This is crap even by their standards and just straight boring. It won’t go anywhere, but knowing my luck it might be the Christmas #1. Next.

#60 – “Someone to You” – BANNERS

Produced by KOZ

More “indie pop” debuting on the charts, although this one is directly off of the success of Love, Victor, a Hulu original series based on the film Love, SImon that used it in its soundtrack and hence it’s here on the chart. This song has been on three of this guy’s EPs and is actually all the way back from 2017 so, yeah, we have some old cuts here. I have absolutely nothing to say about the song though. Sure, I appreciate the vocal harmonies in the post-chorus and the organic drumming but the vaguely folkish guitar sounds pretty trite, as do the hand-claps and the incredibly generic mish-mash of love song clichés in all of the lyrics here. I’m reminded of a lighter Biffy Clyro that happens to be from Liverpool instead of Scotland and, you know, have no grit or interesting songwriting to back the enthusiastic vocal delivery and repetitive, exhausting chorus. I’m not into this at all, it just reeks of a lack of effort or unique character to it. And I’m safe to assume that about this next song...

#59 – “You’re Mines Still” – Yung Bleu

Produced by Nate Rhoads

This song got big because of Drake on the remix and thank God for that because this Juice WRLD rip-off could never stand on his two feet anyway. The fake attempt at a half-hearted British accent drenched in Auto-Tune is an immediate turn-off – the dude’s from Alabama and sounds like he’s vaguely imitating an Afroswing singer – but so is this incredibly low-effort trap beat with barely anything other than a Sting sample from the exact song “Lucid Dreams” sampled, and it’s not like this is an uncommon flip, coincidence or even a sample that hasn’t been used in a bunch of rap tracks before. Watch out, Yung Bleu, or else Sting will try and sue your ass on BS counts of “plagiarism” until you tragically die young or get a Drake stimulus package big enough for you to pay off royalties and fines for copyright infringement. In fact, I’m convinced that’s the only reason Drake hopped onto the remix so he and his massive bank account can settle the incoming lawsuit and pay the legal fees for this guy, because he doesn’t contribute anything worthwhile to this trash either. Jesus, this is bad.

#58 – “Happiness” – Little Mix

Produced by TMS

We don’t have that album yet, but we have another low-charting promotional single, I guess, now that the last one dropped off from the chart entirely... last week. Little Mix are now noticing that maybe they really cannot perform that well without Syco so I guess they’re just throwing as many bricks as D-Block Europe claim to be selling and hoping one of them fits into the wall. I don’t mind the song for all it’s worth, to be honest, I mean it’s more of a fast-paced dance-pop song about love I can appreciate with some pretty great vocal performances from the girls here, especially who I think are Leigh-Anne and Jade. The chorus hits pretty hard and the fusion of 808s and trap skitters on the verses with a killer UK garage-inspired drum loop on the chorus... yeah, I can actually endorse this, albeit with some hesitation, especially since the bridge is literally just like 10 seconds of vocal riffing, which makes the song feel somewhat underwritten even if that final chorus, especially the lead-up to it, is pretty amazing and genuinely surprised me on my first listen. This is good, and honestly a lot better than I expected from Little Mix, so check it out if you’re interested, although sadly I doubt this’ll stick.

#29 – “Hold” – Chunkz and Yung Filly

Produced by Ransom Beatz

I can say the same about this, now that we’re in the top 40 here (first for both artists), mostly because Chunkz is pretty much a YouTube comedian and looking at these lyrics, there are now jokes. There is some ugly Auto-Tuned crooning over a pretty flat Afroswing beat and Chunkz’s delivery is similarly flat and it’s obvious he’s a comedian. You can just tell when rappers are also comedians and this guy definitely makes that obvious in his half-hearted “upbeat” delivery that sounds like a satire, but the problem is again that there are NO JOKES. Is the “airplane mode” line a joke? The use of the word “investments”? The egregious Spanish in the second verse? This weak-sauce instrumental? If any of these are jokes or an attempt at comedy, please let me stand corrected because I don’t know if Chunkz was chuckling to himself writing but none of this is funny or even entertaining. It’s pretty telling that the Genius page gave up on trying to distinguish the two rappers as well. Next.

#19 – “Lonely” – Justin Bieber and benny blanco

Produced by benny blanco and FINNEAS

Why is benny blanco credited as a lead artist while FINNEAS isn’t? Huh. Well, Justin’s back and leaving whatever the hell Changes was earlier this year right behind him, focusing on more introspective and personal tracks like... “Holy”, I guess. Well, for what it’s worth, this is better than “Holy” by quite a bit. It’s a pretty minimal ballad with some nice work on the keys from benny and egregious profanity from Bieber in the chorus. I do like the content though, and how he delves into Bieber’s regrets in his past, especially in the second verse although I feel like he misses the point here or at least doesn’t go in-depth enough for me to fully comprehend his view on the situation. They criticised things you did as an idiot kid because they were insensitive, immoral and at some times illegal, not because you were a child. Sure, the media and the press can be antagonistic, especially to easy targets – hell, it’s worse here than in the US or Canada – but it’s not entirely clear in the short verse here that he’s not just deflecting blame onto the “haters”. I do like how he talks about the downs that come with having so much wealth and fame at a young age and no idea on what to do with it other than reckless leisure activities and raking in the fandom’s love whilst he continues to drink-drive and lose his pet monkey, which he shouldn’t have had in the first place. He also talks about how the paparazzi and Internet comment trolls viewed his pictures of him with Lyme disease and immediately assumed he was doing drugs, which can be similarly said for Chadwick Boseman, who died earlier this year due to complications related to colon cancer at age 43. Yeah, this one digs pretty deep but I still feel like it could have used a third verse, especially since while Bieber claims to cite his wife Hailey Baldwin as his “saviour” this is his third or fourth time painting himself as the “comeback” of Bieber but now a more mature man, and none of those attempts have really succeeded so this seems kind of desperate on his behalf. Sigh, the song’s fine and honestly I appreciate it for what it tries to do but it falls short here and lacks the real dagger in the heart moment personally revealing songs about fame like this should have, although I’d admit it gets close. Now for our final entry, which has considerably less to talk about...

#18 – “Chingy (It’s Whatever)” – Digga D

Produced by ItchyDaProducer

Chingy? As in “Right Thurr”, “Holidae Inn” Chingy? Huh. From one look at the chorus, it just seems to be another threat but hey, Digga D’s back. I’m not sure if anyone wanted him back but here he is. He released an album last year. This wasn’t on it. I can’t actually remember this guy at all; I assumed this was DigDat so I expected some quality – I mean, no drill lyric can beat “white like Peter, brown like Cleveland” – but no, it’s Digga D, who made a song with Russ Splash last year that got in the top 40. I remember reviewing it, I remember not thinking much of it at the time. I don’t think much of this one either although I do have to admit I really like that eerie vocal sample, even if it is completely drowned out by the drill beat and the inconsistently-censored sliding on the beat from Digga D. He uses a pretty standard drill flow here though, and the verses are little more than oddly specific gunplay and flexing. He does actually interpolate “Right Thurr” by Chingy in this pretty good and catchy chorus – which I imagine is the only reason this is in the top 20 – as well as in the second verse, where he interpolates his other biggest song which already interpolated a Vine. Sure, I guess.

Conclusion

Not as good of a week as the last, although there’s still a LOT of British hip hop here, mostly sectioned between some indie-pop clunkers. In fact, I’m going to give Glass Animals the Dishonourable Mention for “Heat Waves” while Worst of the Week goes to “You’re Mines Still” by Yung Bleu and Drake on the remix for just being a horrible song all around. Best of the Week surprises me but it’s going to Little Mix for “Happiness” because, well, at least it has some damn energy to it unlike the rest of these songs. I guess the Honourable Mention can go to “One More Time” by Not3s and AJ Tracey but even that would be stretching it. Let’s hope for some good stuff next time, maybe some of that new Gorillaz album... pretty please? Here’s the top 10 for this week:

Big gains for “What You Know Bout Love” there, which is interesting. Follow me on @cactusinthebank for Tory scum baiting and I’ll see you next week.

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crypt-addict · 8 years ago

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EXCLUSIVE: Review of ‘Weeping Song/Bells Ring’ by CHURCHGATE.

Wow? Who would have thought the day would come where i...an unimportant reviewer in the depths of tumblrs’ half-arsed pastel, goth and alternative dungeons would have the chance to exclusively preview and review such a spectacular release?! I have tried my hand at reviewing many mainstream albums before, with pretty hit and miss responses; but i assure you - this is one review you definitely need to read through and listen to the end product, because by GOD you need CHURCHGATE in your life, like NOW.

The duo, consisting of Murdo and Jessie, is arguably, one of the best independent queer and alternative/dark synth bands to come out of 2017 so far, and in my opinion, the best. Raining from two very different corners of the country, with a 100 mile journey between them - this is one of the best musical outcomes of a long distance friendship i have seen, in my good decade of observing the DIY and alternative scenes. Mixing earworm guitar and synth leads, with haunting ghostly and scream-like vocals - which seep into your bones and out of your every nerve - shivering your senses and leaving you hungry to press the repeat button, like a hit of the best drug you have encountered; CHURCHGATE are definitely a force to be reckoned with. Don’t sleep on this release, because these guys are going to be big, sooner than you might think! Without any further ado, lets get into the track by track review:

--TRACK BY TRACK REVIEW--

WEEPING SONG: Beginning with sharp, and harsh guitar strikes, with a catchy but off-putting (in the best kind of way) synth structure soon jumping in, pulsating and enrapturing you like a siren of the post-goth era, Weeping Song is the début single everybody wishes they could put together. Reminiscent of some fucked up, euphoric musical smoothie, consisting of Alice Deejay’s ‘Better Off Alone’ and CRIM3S’ ‘BREED’ - with a pinch of Cocteau Twins; CHURCHGATE have clearly redefined the dark electro genre as we know it.

No ounce of emotion is spared as you focus onto each personal and relatable lyric, from “broken bone, forgotten home” to “still holding hands, we are the weeping” - it’s obvious just how much this song hits home, for me at least. I don’t know about anyone else but what captivates me with music is being able to have a sense of relation with the artist who wrote the lyrics, and with such a powerful tone its clear to see how much effort went into not just the complexity of the lyrics, but the instrumental- which in itself has countless layers of instruments, further drawing out emotion.

I don’t quite know how to say it in words, without sounding like a psycho - but music really does sometimes have the ultimate power to make you ‘feel’ sadness but also strength, the strength of ‘keeping-on-keeping-on’ and regardless of what shit life throws at you, carrying on with some façade of happiness, which eventually turns into true overcoming of sadness, and a real sense of happiness after all. Few songs manage to draw it out, but those that do leave a lasting memory on your heart and in your head. CHURCHGATE managed to reach that flag-post in their first track; something many bands can’t achieve til their final years together, or never at all.

My favourite thing about the lyrics is that they are relatable ina sense that, each verse could be taken with a variety of definitions. For example, my stand out lyric is perhaps one of the verses which could most definitely be interpreted into many different scenario’s - “pierce the night, with our light // held you down, without a fight”. For me the line suggests that whomever the song’s point of view is about, has overcame some trouble, and the light is suggestive of the dark times being over, but the struggle was hard, given that whatever held them back was so easy to give in to. With genre’s constantly moving on in terms of musicality and vocal techniques; it is a constant struggle to have your own sense of uniqueness within the community - but this track has no trouble finding its own benchmark within a variety of genre’s - and for that reason alone, is why i find myself so hexed whilst listening to it.

Musically, the song has a few key ‘changes’ in structure - around the half way point, the guitars become more prominent for a while, before becoming engulfed, but not overshadowed by the synths once more. A synth breakdown follows, where more layers gradually gravitate over the main melody until the bridge - where the guitars become highlighted once more. Leaving no stone unturned, the outro within itself, manages to give you one last shiver - refraining the synth melody that kicked in initially after the intro by itself, before submitting itself into a sea of white noise glory. I cannot do anything but recommend this track to anybody - regardless of their strict genre rules or tastes in music, i have all hope and trust that this track will go far. I’m calling it right now! And for that, this track deserves no less than a 10/10.

BELLS RING: Channeling a twisted take on the original dream pop track, originally by Mazzy Star - this cover is sickeningly sweet, in the strangest of ways. With Murdo’s aggressive, almost demonic mumbling of the lyrics, eerily distorted synth accompanies and Jessie channelling 80′s rock with his guitar leads - this is nothing short of a dark synth-wave take on a once serenading track.

Lines such as “Bells ring into the night, Sounds like a mistress on a rainy night” have a more mellow mumble, whereas the chorus; bearing lyrics such as “Nobody wants to know your reason why” resonate a creepier, more mischievous tone. All the while between the glorious guitar, short bursts of clashing synths give a sense of uneasiness, followed by a warm nostalgic feeling once more.

All in all, this cover is a gem amongst many covers of the song a quick YouTube search can find you. And in comparison to other artists who may decide to play it safe when using a cover as a b-side, CHURCHGATE went far, far, FAR from the ‘norm’ partially by choosing such a track that was little known to begin with, and also by conjuring up such a daring, whimsical and unique take on the track - vocals in particular. 9.7/10

*TOTAL RATING: 9.8/10*

Overall, i see big things happening for these guys. They definitely have their heads screwed on, and their ideas mounted together in order to define themselves within the already diverse musical playing field. With a benign exterior, and an interior almost like being hit in the face with a candy-covered machete; i genuinely have nothing bad to say about this release! Now please excuse me whilst i drown in my tears at how emotional i feel after listening on repeat for days, hahah.

Always remember to support the artist! - you can get your very own copy of the single via churchgates’ bandcamp page ❤

**Also, remember to keep an eye on my blog for next week, where i will be uploading a further review of the bands entire Demonstration (I) EP - but until then, please ensure you bask in the delight of these two teaser tracks - not forgetting to check out the bands Facebook or Soundcloud whilst you’re at it!!**

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pigeonespionage-blog · 8 years ago

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Pristin’s Wee Woo: Analyzing Song Structure by the Seventeen Standard

I was sent this link of a post by @basedtzuyu on Twitter: https://twitter.com/basedtzuyu/status/844365400016142336

And the below stuff is me analyzing Wee Woo using Seventeen’s songs as a point of comparison and let’s have such A FUN TIME APPRECIATING MUSIC CHOICES!! WOO!!! Note: I will sometimes say things that sound very critical of Wee Woo. But I think Pristin is full of cool dudes and this is just an analysis I made for fun times. I’m not lookin’ for fan wars!! Definitely not!

CARATS AND PRISTIN FANS GATHER ROUND, this is super interesting actually!! This person (@basedtzuyu) has some pretty interesting stuff to say and I think that they did a good job in starting a conversation we can branch from (even when we don’t agree with her points). IT'S TIME WE TALK ABOUT SONG STRUCTURE, in a very analytical way we haven't talked about it before. Let's try to figure out why some people are so critical of Wee Woo, where Wee Woo pulls from Seventeen, and how Woozi has established a Seventeen style through song structure.

Let's start off by talking about Mansae. The most typical pop song structure follows a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus format. Mansae starts off with an intro-- normal for kpop-- but then it goes into a pre-verse, and that's more interesting.

The intro is a proper introduction, and it's centered around one particular rapper. Its arrangement is pretty bare and the rap follows an adlib-like format. Then the pre-verse (with HVC aka Vernon) resembles the verse in some ways and serves to actually lead in to the verse.

Then it’s the verse, and this verse is strange because it's 15 bars. Most music follows multiples of 4, so verses are almost always 8 bars or 16-- why is this verse 15 bars? The first half of the verse is based on singing, melody, and when Woozi is just about to resolve the melody... he's interrupted. The melody would have felt very complete on the 8th bar, but it was interrupted by something else: the second half of the verse, which is rap-based. So there are 7 bars of singing, and the melody is cut off, unresolved and replaced by 8 bars of rap.

Then, there's a 4-bar pre-chorus. In this pre-chorus, there are three bars of singing and then the arrangement clears out into near silence for 1 bar of rap-- this is THREE BARS OF BUILD-UP and then on the fourth bar, when the melody could either resolve or go over the edge, it does neither. The little pause for a bar of rap allows for A STAGNANT MOMENT, a moment where the tension just hangs there briefly, until the chorus bursts in.

And it does, holy hell, it does. We're treated to an 8-bar chorus, sung by Seungkwan and DK, which is the first resolved melody we've even heard so far. We’ve been building and building all this time; when it ends on that eighth bar, there's a certain satisfaction to hearing that resolution.

And what do you do when a melody resolves?

You usually don't hype it up even more but they do because hOLY FUCK MANSAE HAS TWO CHORUSES. YES, THIS IS A POST-CHORUS, THE "MANSAE-RU-MANSAE-RU-MANSAE-RU-MANSAE-YEAH" IS ANOTHER FUCKING CHORUS. NO RESOLUTION GOES TO DOUBLE RESOLUTION. Post-choruses are NOT a common song structure and Mansae is daring and very of its own for building up to TWO different choruses, and such excellent choruses as well. When you think you're done with Your Ears Succeeding, the happiness JUST DOESN'T END. There's a lot more I can say about Mansae's song structure, but let's cut it short there and talk about what this means for Seventeen and what it means for Pristin.

Seventeen has actually uses elements of Mansae’s structure not only on title tracks, but a lot of non-title tracks as well. (All rules vary; Pretty U and Aju Nice don’t have post-choruses, while No FUN and Beautiful do.) Seventeen-ish song structure suggests:

Raps can be used as a way to keep energy STAGNANT. Resolving a melody causes a decrease in energy, and carrying it upwards, unresolved, can cause overblown build-up which is ultimately unsatisfying. Instead, adding brief rap lines holds the current energy of the song where it is, all the way up until that satisfying burst of energy in a hook or a chorus. (This rule is very often broken for the bridges, where SVT likes to throw a shit ton of whatever they feel like throwing at you for the best possible sensory overload.)

There’s a particular SVT strategy for chorus, post-chorus song structure. The first chorus seems like the main hype train, initially. The post-chorus, though, is what actually contains the primary hook, and often, the title. Contrary to the first chorus, the post-chorus is catchier, often following simpler melodies that resolve quickly. They’re also more percussive, including plays with silence, and may be as short as 4 bars (as in Adore U). I feel like I don’t usually hear pre-choruses AND post-choruses integrated smoothly in the same song, but SVT does that as well; often songs with post-choruses sacrifice their pre-choruses.

The second verse typically has an alternate melody. This is pretty normal for kpop but it’s a choice that Seventeen makes consistently. Typically this requires two alternate melodies, and as for the backtrack, the second verse will start out with a broken down or rhythm-based version of the first verse. Then, on the 9th bar, the backtrack will essentially return to that of the first verse.

As in the post-chorus of Mansae, rap can also be manipulated to RESOLVE. Typically not melodically, but rhythmically. If your melody is complete and you have space to fill, rather than adding an unnecessary flourish, the rap gives you time to resolve the rhythm without untying an already-complete melody.

There is an intro filled with rap adlibs that introduce the song, and possibly a pre-verse to bridge the intro to the verse.

There’re many hook-like vocal fills and adlibs.

The chorus’s melody (esp. the 1st chorus) tends to take an unexpected turn on the 3rd bar and DOES repeat on the 5th, but switches things up again on the 7th. The chorus is willing to repeat in the name of resolution; typically resolves twice.

The verse’s melody tends to take unexpected turns at specific points in time. Usually the melody will take a twist every 2 or 4 bars. The melody will only repeat for the sake of resolution.

So let’s see how Wee Woo compares!!

Wee Woo’s intro is really fuckin’ solid and, broadly speaking, it’s the most popular section of the song. It’s mostly instrumentation with the hook SLIPPED IN there— only for the hook to later return as the basis for the entire post-chorus, becoming, therefore, a refrain that adapts to more than one section. When a song has a post-chorus, it’s common to use the post-chorus as an intro as well because of how the post-chorus connects to the verse. But Wee Woo’s intro is not DIRECTLY the post-chorus, it’s an entire section based on a refrain from the post-chorus with interest added to the spaces in between— much like how the post-chorus of Adore U is made. This is a really unique structure that I’m certain draws from Adore U.

In Adore U, this is actually an amazingly thoughtful strategy because a quick refrain from the intro becomes intertwined with the main hook of the entire song so that they’re dependent on each other, going so far as completing a sentence which was originally unfinished in the intro. How Wee Woo’s approach differs, we’ll get to that in a sec.

First, the verse. We have a lot of differently melodies that’re jammed in here and that hasn’t been so well-received. But Mansae’s verse changes melodies, right? Let’s break that down.

Mansae’s first verse goes…

-2 bars of a consistent melody

-Same 2 bars repeated

-2 bars of a twist on the melody which does not seem predictable

-1 bar that leads from that twist of melody into a resolution of the melody that’ll bring the melody together

-Last bar is cut off by the second half of the verse before it can resolve

Wee Woo’s first verse, by contrast, is…

-1st bar: A melody

-2nd bar: A totally different melody (“ayayaya”)

-3rd bar: A different different melody

-4th bar: 2nd bar repeated

-5th bar: Another totally different melody, and this one is amelodic as well

-6th bar: Back to “ayayaya” (2nd/4th bar) but it still doesn’t tie to the 5th bar

-7th/8th bars: Another totally different melody, this one taking up two bars rather than relying upon the “ayayaya” refrain

You can see this is more of a mess, but it’s not just complexity that caused the downfall; the first half of every line, the odd bars (not even), are all totally different melodies that they try to justify by repeating the same “ayayaya” melody at the end. It sounds like there are two parts of the song; the part which is consistent, and the part which is just about randomized. There’s a repeated line tagged onto what sounds like chaos. Rather than creating an “I didn’t expect the melody to go there,” moment, the listener says, “Wait, what’s the melody?” Furthermore, the refrain is only one note, so even though it’s the part that makes melodic sense, it’s like the organized part is bringing attention away from itself. Mansae throws wrenches into its melodies and then spends time trying to justify them; Wee Woo’s melody here is pretty much all wrenches.

The second half of the verse has a totally different issue. Melodically it sounds like a continuation of the verse… but THE ARRANGER SPLIT PART OF THE VERSE INTO THE PRE-CHORUS. This is definitely an issue of miscommunication. Hold on, I gotta explain, haha.

It’s trendy to spend the second half of a verse building into a pre-chorus… but here we have what sounds like 4 bars of a verse and then an 8 bar pre-chorus? What? What is happening? Fuckery. Fuckery is happening. The first half of the verse is 8 bars. The second half, which builds more, should be 8 bars. And yet instead of that, we have an unusually long pre-chorus… THE RAP WAS WRITTEN TO BE A PART OF THE VERSE, AT LEAST THAT’S WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE. The you’re-my-super-he-ro shit? When we have an actually really lovely build-up from two sung lines and then two rapped lines, those should be part of the same section. The rap slipped in there, ignoring the arrangement, sounds much like Seventeen’s use of rap lines to stall build-up and keep your attention. But the arranger, for some reason, changed the instrumentation from that of the verse (all that cool stuff that @basedtzuyu said about changing the instrumentation from that of the foundation), ultimately shoving them in with the pre-chorus. So the composer wrote part of a verse… and the arranger turned that into part of the pre-chorus. Yeah, someone was playing a really extensive game of telephone, that’s for sure. This isn’t the only time an arranger has misunderstood the Seventeen system (something similar, although less noticeable, happened with Boom Boom) and it won’t be the last, but it’s good to know what we’re hearing here! Rather than totally switching up the instrumentation to match the change from vocals to rap, the instrumentation should have been based on the rest of the verse’s instrumentation; it was originally written as an extension on the verse. And this is especially a clusterfuck because Pristin already wrote two different musical motifs into the pre-chorus—that sing-rapped line and Kyla’s line—so adding 4 totally irrelevant bars to a PRE-CHORUS (which is supposed to be a really brief way of transitioning things) can be confusing.

I also personally think Kyla’s line there was a bit too amelodic, but if they were experimenting with a way to SING (rather than rap) their way into stagnancy, another way to deal with a melody you don’t want to resolve or leave unresolved, then I respect that, I’ll give that a lil’ head pat and let it be.

Now, let’s skip to the post-chorus, by which I mean that famous WEE WOO WEE WOO WEE!! The last line of the chorus, the line that resolves the melody, becomes a hook of the post-chorus, just like Adore U. There’re a lot of things good about this post-chorus; the instrumentation is such a fucking strong-point, and the quirks of this chorus are memorable— a sung hook made out of a rhythmically manipulated siren sound? And there’re real siren sounds incorporated into the song, and most importantly, it’s dynamic; the relationship between hard guitar/rhythm and the declining, quiet, subtle nature of this post-chorus is done very well. On its own, it’s lovable— so why might it not work? @basedtzuyu’s version where she cuts out the post-chorus actually sounds significantly more natural.

Well, this post-chorus doesn’t quite do what a post-chorus is supposed to do. A post-chorus, aside from being another chorus, is made to CONNECT INTO THE VERSE. In the same way a pre-verse connects to the chorus, the post-chorus must connect directly into the verse. Despite the fact that it’s built surprisingly similarly to the Adore U post-chorus, the Wee Woo post-chorus does not correctly make way for the verse. A post-chorus should not BUILD excitement, it simply doesn’t make sense. It stays where it is or gradually decreases excitement. It should be a double reward of melody resolution; one chorus finishes up and we go on to the next satisfying moment immediately because we’re hit with a double reward. We shouldn’t build all the way to the chorus’s resolution only for the post-chorus to drop down and build up again. And more importantly, building up the post-chorus WORSENS the transition into the verse instead of making it better. The post-chorus should be a satisfying descent into the verse. But on the 5th bar of the post-chorus, the drum kicks in and there’s an exciting synth, the addition of those siren sounds… It’s natural for some part of the brain to very quietly say, “Didn’t we already go through this?” We shouldn’t be building up right now. It makes the chorus and the verse additionally appear unsatisfying and leaves a more sour impression of the song, even though the chorus, post-chorus, and second verse actually have some interesting things about them!! Little mistakes like this can be a big deal! Mansae is VERY careful about build-up, and Wee Woo has no pacing.

Also notice that Mansae and Adore U descend excitement in post-choruses in a certain way. They start with an EXCITING HOOK!!! Then things descend and descend in energy… EXCITING HOOK!!! Descend, descending, verse. Just like that!!! Verse, right then, right there, a seamless transition!! Wee Woo doesn’t descend very well, however. Melodically, the same two bars are repeated without any descent, and if they absolutely insist on repeating that melody over and over, a descend can be hard… and what’s more, since the hook comes AFTER the instrumentation, it’s less clear that the melody should be getting less exciting even over the course of those two bars. Plus, the hook goes UP rather than going down, the instrumental bit before the hook is lower and therefore less exciting… Yeah. They made their jobs a lot harder.

Once they had this post-chorus that gets more exciting instead of resolving into the verse, they tried to patch-up the problem by making the last bar very bare and quiet compared to the others so the verse wouldn’t sound too boring, but it doesn’t fix the smell, it just adds a Febreeze on TOP of the smell.

That being said, I do think the 2nd verse does its job!! I think the rap should’ve been had an extra 4 bars at the beginning, but that’s okay! Moving on!

There’s only one section left to talk about and I’m not sure what to say because there ARE things here that’re kind of… out of my league to tackle, haha. The bridge, to my ears, doesn’t work but I can’t really tell you why. What I will say though, is that I don’t agree with @basedtzuyu that a bridge must be exciting. (Note: I’m assuming that by breakdown she meant bridge, since those things’re different.) Adore U’s bridge starts out chill and then picks up, adding excitement that pays off in the final chorus. But Wee Woo’s bridge, while attempting to do the same thing, doesn’t… sound consistent with the rest of the song, and I feel confused,,, about this,,, All that I can say is that they probably should’ve left emphasis on the off-beat during the bridge but that feels like it’s not a significant explanation enough AHAHAHA I TRIED

But hey!! I think I did alright on the rest!! Hope this satisfies HAVE A NICE DAY EVERYBODY *BLASTS ROLLER COASTER SO LOUD THAT YOU’LL HAVE TO GET OUT OF MY HOUSE* no but really ty for reading my super long post hehehheu youre appreciated officially now yes

#pristin #seventeen #kpop #review #music #wee woo #adore u #mansae

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all-brown-everything · 8 years ago

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THE MOST INTERESTING INDIAN FILMS OF 2016

Critical writing should attempt to be somewhat objective, to rationalise and give meaning to one’s opinions, but with cinema that is impossible. Cinema deals with emotions and with humanity, very far from rationality.

To discuss the “quality” of cinema over an arbitrary 52-week period seems ridiculous, as the Indian film calendar doesn’t have the formal book-ending that the Oscars awards season gives to Hollywood (though we do have the masala noise-fest of Sankranti/Pongal movies in the early months, and the all caps BOLLYWOOD event movies of Diwali, Eid & Christmas into the second half of the year). Yet over the last 52 weeks, Hindi cinema in particular seems to have succumbed to the cold and clinical idea that we should be told exactly how to feel and when to feel it, using sound and image for little more than a beginning-middle-and-end, setup-problem-resolution, with well-oiled emotional propaganda like Dangal, Airlift and Pink. These “good” films were full of rationality in their storytelling. A rationality based on rules, commerce and market testing. You are able about to say what they are “about” in one word. So the following films are those that I found most rewarding, as they dared to be irrational. Confusing. Irritating. Sometimes boring. These are films that perhaps accidentally, embraced a spirit of anarchy and looked both inward and outward, works that felt both a sense of being inside and outside “cinema”. We know now what it means to be “good” in terms of movie making. Good camerawork, good direction, good screenwriting - these things have now been defined. All the films in this list have these features, so I will attempt not to write about them. These are the films that used those tools to do something more than tell a story. 9. Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada

A. R. Rahman’s stunning song from this soundtrack, Thalli Pogathey, has a lot in common with the film itself. No chorus, no refrain. A run of melodies that never repeat, yet still never deviate from a common emotion or feeling, that layer on top of one another and build to a explosive and confusing climax. Then before you know it, it’s finished. Incidentally, the song plays over a car crash. A film with great respect for the laws of genre, but no respect for keeping them clean and intact. Boy meets girl. Boy convinces girl to go on spontaneous picturesque road-trip. Road-trip turns into insane gangster chase movie. Then the resolution of the story is so wild it might as well be from a different film, while cramming as many Tamil pop-culture movie references as possible into a five minute scene. The most stimulating thing about the film is trying to work out just how seriously it is taking itself. Depending on which end of the spectrum you answer that question, it’s either a work by a filmmaker brave enough to break every last rule and still attempt to make us feel something, or a mocking criticism of the idea that anyone ever thought it possible to even try. 8. Bambukat

Punjabi cinema continues to be thrilling, creating its own language that is near impossible to pin down. A film like this, that tells a simple and unambiguous, almost proverbial tale, seems out of place on a list like this that celebrates the subversive. But there is something more at play. The Punjabi cinema of the last 10 years has blossomed when at its most Punjabi. Initially, this cinema was very clearly language-based; stage play-esque comedies that relied on accent, wordplay and slang. But now, a love for the soil, people and culture of Punjab has created something amazing. When you love and respect everything around you, the air, the light, the sound of the wind, what better medium is there to express it than cinema? And this is true cinema. The story of two men battling it out to have the best motorbike is a gilded washing-line on which to hang these small details, these beautiful paghs and parandey. 7. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Usually, the thundering act-of-god is a disappointing deal breaker in films about people and the consequences of their actions (read: the car crashes in Cocktail and Kapoor & Sons), but the twist works in this film. It is the classic Bollywood trope of tragedy. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is melodrama itself, from a filmmaker who has huge love for this very Indian art form. Aside from Bhansali, which other contemporary director still explores the meaningless calamity of human existence with such poetry and romance, and such disregard for being concise? The characters of this film are people with nothing real to worry about, who create their own problems without meaning to. And then that twist, wherein they realise even the worst thing God can throw at you is nothing compared to what you can throw at yourself. Cinema shouldn’t attempt to answer questions. It should use camera and sound, abstracts like music, poetry, colour, and other fundamentally absurd components of popular culture, and pose questions with them. 6. Action Hero Biju

Is cinema an honest medium? Is it ever possible to capture truth on camera? Action Hero Biju seems on the surface to be trying. A documentary-esque non-narrative casebook of events in one charismatic policeman’s life. With characters etched in such succinct detail despite appearing on screen for a matter of minutes, moments of devastating melancholy juxtaposed with sudden roaring humour, moments of stillness and observation ended with crowd-pleasing fourth wall-breaking masala punches, and a camera that roves like an escaped chicken in a bustling street market, this is as honest a film as you will ever see. 5. Maheshinte Prathikaram

Another film about people, the world they inhabit, and the things they do inside it. The mood and texture of this particular world, and the way in which it is communicated to us, is entirely singular. It’s all just chance. The crux of this film, and any small trace of “narrative” that exists within, is just a random chain of banal events, a farcical demonstration of the butterfly effect involving some dropped coconuts and a slapstick street brawl. What we’re left with is a film that laughs at the idea of reason, at the idea of originality of thought. Some films are brave enough to be about many things at once. Others are even braver to dare to be about nothing at all. Yes it is superbly shot and directed, with beautiful characters and performances, but more importantly it is a film that whispers to you softly, as warm water rushes around your feet, and you aware of just what it is to be alive. 4. Kali

Speaking of films that are “about” things, we have Kali (Rage); a film that can be read as another interesting exploration into the Indian 2-act structure (pre and post-interval), or a moody exploitation thriller about a road trip where everything goes wrong (and isn’t the genre of exploitation such an interesting thing for any audience to think about?), or most interestingly, a cubist dissection of anger as a concept (as emotions are to cinema what light is to painting). Then you have Sai Pallavi as a centerpiece, an undeniably wonderful actress and bonafide icon who,in 2015’s Premam, became the focus of a film about the male gaze and subsequently held the gaze of every male in the South of India. Now she is the partially seeing-eye of the narrative, and it is through her gaze and her experience that we feel the wrath of male anger weighing down on us. In the opening of the film we are treated to a character establishing flashback, a giant brawl on a college campus, shot with a biblical audacity, iconoclastic gait. In this testosterone-fueled pure masala moment, we realise how “masculinity” is rage, and how rage is, in turn, masala cinema. 3. Kadhalum Kadanthu Pogum

The hardest film to write about in the list. A film with a sense of purpose in its craft, but that left me wonderfully confused. Is it just a drama about two people from two walks of life attempting to understand each other and define the (sexual or non-sexual) attraction they both hold? Is it Shakespearean farcical comedy of errors? Is it an ode to a wasted life - a sighing, weary half-warning on chasing an idea of excitement that is peddled to the poorest, stupidest people only to disappoint them and leave them with nothing? There are films in this list that are about “issues” that affect people, where people die, and that guilt us into change with swathes of sadness. But this may be the saddest film of the lot, as it is ultimately pathetic and hopeless. You laugh at its protagonist, a failed gangster who has given up on trying to intimidate anyone and just slumps around, barely bothering to be alive. But it is a dangerous laughter, because doesn’t that person exist somewhere inside all of us? We are offered catharsis, even something of a happy ending, but like every other moment here, it is softly lined with utter nothingness. That nothingness comes from the performances, from the mood, from the camera, which ironically fill every second with great life and detail. How powerful it is to speak with such purpose about having no purpose. 2. Kammatipaadam

A truly scholarly work, that on a first viewing could be seen to be a slow-moving collection of vignettes that add up to some dramatic character arcs. But this is more than a film. It is a dense and academic study of a particular socio-political moment in time, where a city was gentrified and “developed” at the expense of its most loyal and loving inhabitants, whereby they were not fought with, but lied to, manipulated, and swallowed up by the belief that they were being helped. It is a study of an intricate and contradictory caste system, and the way it was abused and controlled by those above it to enslave the people within it. But the film doesn’t shout these things at you. In fact it doesn’t even whisper. It just happens. And you might not even notice it if you don’t read a few essays and historical books. That is how slight and personal a work this is. 1. Sairat

Then you have Sairat, which covers similarly socially important subject ground as Kammatipaadam, with considerably less subtlety. But both are valid forms of expression. In fact, Sairat is proud to manipulate you. It makes no secret of it. It does poke and prod you, and put things in front of you and ask you to answer to them, as if you are an active participant in such horrors. But it builds on you slowly, it creeps up on you, lulls you into rhythms and then wakes you up at random, sometimes with loud bangs and sometimes, even more unnervingly, with tiny scratches. This is something I’ve never felt before in a film. To say simply that the pre-interval half is filmi escapism, complete with the colourful and musical diversions that make popular cinema popular, and that the second half smacks you in the face with cold and silent “realism”, would be true but over-simplified. The second half, as quiet as it is, still sings to you. It is still untrue, still cinema in an equally calculating and designing mode. Just perhaps a less enjoyable one. Then the ending. Preachy and heavy handed, maybe. Soul crushing, certainly. But after three hours of being massaged, of feeling the warm hands of cinema all over your body (with varying degrees of lightness and heaviness of touch), to be suddenly left with this devastating nothingness, this void of humanity, is an experience. It may sound trite, but in this moment you realise that we are all at danger of being nothing but a passive audience to our own lives. Sense of self, pride in an abstract sense of community, social class – those are the biggest manipulations dished out to us by each other. To say Sairat is about caste is too easy. It is about all the hateful lies that have ever killed love. ------------------------------- Thank you and see you next year. For the record I also loved Kabali and Befikre, but wanted to maintain some air of respectability and was ultimately unable to justify my divisive love. Does that make me a failure? On that note, I shoudn’t even mention my feelings for Housefull 3. Whoops I think I just did...

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xgenesisrei · 7 years ago

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Of Justice and Laughter

It was a tumultous week capped by an eclipse that casted a spell of an impending doom.

So fierce was the clash of emotions that social media dripped with both blood and tears. One side claimed for itself the rightful expression of sympathy and mercy. Justice for the helpless victims of a trigger-happy police. With a great sense of urgency was made a call for empathy from among all who stake a claim for righteousness and sanctity. But another side gloated at the hypocrisy of it all, for seeing a narrow act devoid of the same depth of lamentation for the sorry victims of drug addicts gone insane. Still some, poised a refusal to be used as a ploy for a subtle means of political vindication.

But a line has to be drawn, demanded by impassioned souls. Somewhere. In such a time as this. Between those who dare raise their voices and those who defied joining the chorus of outrage. To separate the marching wheat of clenched fists, from the tares of unmoved feet. To sift through the sheep meekly expressing regrets for ever having a hand in putting a bloodthirsty chief in the presidency. Sift them from the goats who remain steadfast in its decision that for once the country needed someone deranged enough to stir the hornet’s nest.

It was made clear how the hands that accomplished those ballots signed as well the death order for Kian. “It’s on you.” And, as well as, every innocent soul that kept being snatched in the grim of the night.

One wonders if the same is true for the lives sacrificed at Mamasapano. Or the Tanim Bala tragedy at NAIA. Or the countless Filipinos who died as a result of un-moderated greed by whatever that “I’m sorry” in live television is all about. Or the massacre at Maguindanao wherein a marauding private army was but a product of a tactical political alliance. Would you audit the votes responsible for putting a most inefficient party in position? Whose people power made neckbraces in fashion? But, really. Will a recount of who vote for whom provide the absolution demanded by one’s sullied conscience? Easy it is to think that somehow the offense has to be paid. A shameful ritual has to be staged. Crucifixion if it must be so long as honor will be shed and shred. Let all whose hands are tainted with blood be damned.

Yet still, what is lost in the crucifixion is the reality that after the elections one gets a government. Put into authority not merely by the winning votes but by the process, broken and all, yet still participated by the people. Including those whose votes went to another, or for some reasons didn’t get to be counted. Only by forsaking the entire electoral mess could one still choose to do a Pilate and wash their hands pristine and clean.

But shall the excruciated parties satisfy the clamor for a ‘scapegoat’ so that the disturbed spirit of society be appeased and again be put at ease? Nietzsche might just had a point after all. Stare into the abyss, and the abyss looks back closely at you. If your rage drags people against the wall, then you have assumed for your own the object of your protest’s dark soul. Denouncing violently unwanted acts of violence is no less an expression of a force coldblooded to its very core.

Deep within our heart, we know that love’s most powerful attraction always comes by way of invitation. Hardly, if not altogether never, by way of coercion. Blaming is easy, it is solidarity that is messy. Appealing to people’s sense of right and wrong is always a tougher act than hammering away the superiority of one’s chosen corner of morality. How is it that a vindictive spirit so easily makes us forget the subtle way in which prejudice dulls the sharpest of prophetic piety?

But not a few must have realized what was lost in the whirlpool of anger and mutual disgust. It was the sober space to denounce the wrong that was done without the need to burn everything down.

Drowned somewhere in the sweeping flood of fury was the faint cry of people who sincerely mourn the needless deaths but relentlessly hope for drug trade’s eventual arrest. Swept under the rug were the count of those who pray for the positive promises of the president to prosper but hates his horrendous howls and abhors his horrific humor. Theirs was not a vote for people to be slaughtered like pigs. Or to see EJK a state policy. Most especially, seeing a poor boy snuffed of his dreams by lawless men in uniform. But some political choices are made on the basis of specific policies. A shot at federalism. A Maranao in Malacanang. The attention that Mindanao rightfully deserves. Prospects of peace with Muslim separatists. Or even a resolve to wage a difficult war against a complex system of narco-politics. A complex decision done with the hopes that the victor would do what is right and just (any victor, for that matter). Or, if need be, fiscalized into doing so by powers equal to his position. Particularly by the sovereign Filipino people from whom all power of government emanates.

Drowned somewhere in the sweeping flood of fury was the faint cry of people who have read of God’s disarming sense of justice. Somehow they knew that in the midst of humanity’s outburst of anger was a Psalmist humming a songful dose of party spoiler (Psalm 37). “Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper— it only leads to harm.” What? Surely he has not seen the face of pure evil. But no, his eyes has seen how, “The wicked draw their swords and bend their bows to kill the poor and helpless, to kill those who are honest.” But he is also convinced that “their swords will stab their own hearts, and their bows will break.”

This is why he could continue to sing, “Don’t be upset because of evil people.” Instead, he explodes in a disturbing chorus, “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.” Surely, one who has seen the horrors of injustice would exclaim, why?! Yet, the Psalmist’s rhythm was steady and sure, “For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land. Soon the wicked will disappear. Though you look for them, they will be gone.”

Make no mistake about it, his was not a vindictive beat. His refrain speaks well of the disposition of his heart, “People who are not proud will inherit the land and will enjoy complete peace.” More so, his was not a musing to coil in a corner and wait for kingdom come. Blended in his melody is a call to continue to “do good,” “feed on truth,” “utter wisdom,” and “speak what is just.” Most of all, to keep himself from “being envious of those who do wrong.” Human nature can so easily kick-in to return eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. But the psalmist sings of a caution not to undo evil with evil.

Swept under the rug of last weekend’s panic and disarray was the crescendo of the Psalmist’s odd anthem. He cracked a note that will be the splash of cold water to those thirsting for vengeance: “But the Lord LAUGHS at the wicked, because he sees that their day is coming.” In the rare moments when the Bible speaks of God’s laughter, the author of the 37th Psalm captured it and he knew it was reserved for sneering at the wicked. In the end, the Psalmist knew that justice is of the Lord. And it will be rightfully served. For Kian. For everyone. Wherein “the justice of their cause will shine like a noonday sun.”

That weekend when the sun was swallowed up by darkness, God must be somewhere laughing out loud.

-Rants by Rei Lemuel Crizaldo (August 24, 2017)

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